Giving Voice to Children's Vocal Health: Assessment of Parents' Knowledge Before and After the Online Course

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Dysphonia in children may arise from exposure to inefficient vocal behaviors in primary social environments, particularly within the family context, and it is common for affected children to remain unaware of their vocal impairment. However, there are no studies focused on guiding parents or caregivers on how to deal with this issue, aiming for the success of therapeutic prognosis or the prevention of voice disorders in children. Furthermore, distance education has become a favorable resource currently. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the change in parents' knowledge before and after completing an online course titled "Giving voice to children's vocal health." MATERIALS AND METHODS: Following the development of the course, parents and caregivers of children aged 4 to 11 years, both with and without vocal complaints, were invited to participate in the study. The parents completed the online course, which had an estimated duration of eight hours. Supplementary materials were provided to support parent-child activities at home, and the course incorporated interactive questions designed for joint participation. An online assessment of the course content was administered to the parents within one week prior to the intervention and up to two weeks after its completion. DATA ANALYSIS: A descriptive percentage analysis of the precourse and postcourse tests of the participants was conducted, and inferential analysis was also performed to compare parents' performance on the precourse and postcourse tests using Sigma® 3.5 software, adopting a significance level of 0.05 (P ≤ 0.05) and using the Student's paired t test. RESULTS: A total of 15 parents participated. After completing the course, parents showed a higher percentage of correct answers in the postcourse test in most questions. The average percentage of correct answers for all questions increased from 73% to 93%. There was a statistically significant increase in average correct answers comparing the precourse and postcourse test (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The completion of the course contributed to the expansion of knowledge for parents/caregivers and their children about children's vocal health.