Validity of the French Version of the Child's Vestibular Disorder Symptoms Questionnaire

Balance disorders are the most common cause of dizziness in children with a prevalence of 0.7 to 15%. Vestibular migraine, benign paroxysmal positional vertigo of the child, post-concussion dizziness as a result of cranial trauma, and viral vestibular neuritis are the most common causes. However, these disorders are often undiagnosed in children as many doctors may attribute these symptoms to behavioural disorders or clumsiness. This is probably because of the difficulty children may have in expressing or describing their dizziness symptoms without specific questioning, but also because of the tendency of children to accept the terminology that an adult offers them or even tend to cling to their parents when they experience a balance disorder or vertigo. Vestibular disorders can also have secondary psychological symptoms with an impact on school learning and quality of life. A precise interrogation to check the symptoms, to look for the triggers and to trace the installation of the symptoms is fundamental to diagnose and make a therapeutic decision. Thus, it is very important to help the child express his or her feelings by proposing different descriptions and formulations to determine the etiology and diagnosis. While a number of international questionnaires validated and translated into French exist in the adult to assess the presence, severity and impact of vestibular symptoms, there is currently no score in French for evaluating disorders of the child's balance. Only one questionnaire was validated in the child in English in 2016, the " Pediatric Vestibular Symptom Questionnaire ". The objective of the research is to validate the French translation of this questionnaire.