What Is A Voice Disorder?

According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association | ASHA  “A Voice Disorder occurs when voice quality, pitch, and loudness differ or are inappropriate for an individual’s age, gender, cultural background, or geographic location.” Another term used to describe voice disorders is dysphonia, which means an impairment of the voice.

Voice Disorders can be due to organic, functional, or psychogenic reasons.

• Organic Voice Disorders are the result of structural or neurologic damage. This includes vocal cord nodules, polyps, cysts, paralysis, tremors, and spasms.
• Functional Voice Disorders result from improper or inefficient use of the voice when the physical structure is normal, such as vocal fatigue and vocal tension.
• Psychogenic Voice Disorders are voice impairments that manifest after some psychological trauma, fear, or other emotional stress.

Some people are at a higher risk of developing voice disorders because of their occupations. This includes occupations requiring frequent vocal use, such as teachers, professional speakers, clergy, etc.

Most voice disorders will lead to a change in a person’s pitch, volume, or tone of voice. Signs of a voice disorder include:

• Breathy vocal quality
• Change in pitch or pitch range
• Chronic cough or excessive throat clearing
• Difficulty with breathing during speech
• Discomfort or pain with voice use
• Hoarse voice
• Inability to speak loudly or abnormal loudness
• Loss of voice
• Tremulous voice
• Vocal strain or tension

Whether we are conscious of it or not, we put a lot of wear and tear on our voices each day. Just like other parts of our bodies, our voice needs care to stay healthy. This is called vocal hygiene. Vocal hygiene  is the act of nourishing and hydrating the vocal tract for a healthy voice. This encompasses the following:

• Avoiding yelling and screaming
• Avoiding smoking
• Eating a healthy diet
• Limiting caffeine and acid intake
• Limiting coughing and throat clearing
• Staying well hydrated

Voice therapy for the transgender population works to help the individual speak in a manner that resembles the identified gender. Whether the individual is of the male-to-female or female-to-male transgender population, they will benefit from training on how to change vocal and overall communication qualities to increase confidence in their speech. Voice therapy will focus on modifying many factors of communication in relation to the identified gender, including:

• Intonation
• Pitch
• Rate
• Social communication
• Vocal tone

Whether your voice disorder originates from an organic, functional, or psychogenic problem, our ultimate goal is to help you use your voice optimally. Our Great Speech therapists are trained to thoroughly evaluate your voice, assess vocal habits, and diagnose a voice disorder. Often, we use a team approach to refer clients to medical professionals for a physical or neurological assessment to develop your unique treatment plan and ensure success.

Great Speech therapists will perform a thorough analysis of your voice and develop a personalized plan for your voice therapy. During the course of treatment, we will educate you on vocal anatomy and physiology, recommend vocal hygiene strategies or lifestyle modifications, and provide training on how to use the voice appropriately. We may work on the following skills to improve voice production:

• Coordination of breathing and speaking
• Improving vocal tone
• Improving vocal loudness
• Vocal relaxation

Are you ready to begin online speech therapy? Click here to get started today! We look forward to helping you achieve your optimal voice.