Speech language pathology disorders in children with congenital hypothyroidism: critic review of literature/ Alteracoes fonoaudiologicas em criancas com hipotireoidismo congenito: revisao critica da literatura

Congenital Hypothyroidism (CH) is the most common congenital endocrine disorder in childhood which corresponds to a deficiency of thyroid hormones. This article aimed to do a literature review about the Speech Language Pathology disorders that might be associated to HC. The keywords used for searching the electronic databases PUBMED and MEDLINE were: congenital hypothyroidism OR hypothyroidism AND hearing OR voice OR language. It was included studies published up to July 2011. Two researchers did the analyses, independently, with further discussion and consensus about the inclusion. Out of the 324 studies found in the preliminary analysis, only 20 of them were included in the Anal sample after establishing the criteria for inclusion. We observed that a great number of articles on the children language development on CH, but controversial ones, when it comes to the results of the evaluations. In Audiology, there has been a reduction in the number of articles that describe hearing loss in children who had CH. Only two papers were found about the voice, which referred exclusively to crying abnormalities in babies affected by CH. Although some findings were proven relevant to the subject, the great variability of the research methodology does not allow us to have a clear conclusion on the probable speech language pathology disorders in children with congenital hypothyroidism.