Voice Therapy
At OneRehab multispecialty voice therapy center, we offer evaluation and treatment of voice-related disorders. We help professionals and people with voice disorders improve their voice strength and quality.
Voice Rehabilitation Program
People can develop voice-related problems during any life stage. However, professionals who rely on their voices, such as teachers, telemarketers, clergy, singers, and coaches, have a higher risk. Voice therapy is essential in helping improve the voice’s function, stamina, health, and quality. It is often called physical therapy for your voice.
At OneRehab, we provide comprehensive voice therapy. You will work with our team of professional speech pathologists to achieve normal voice quality. We design an individualized program catering to your specific needs.
When Do You Need Voice Therapy?
Voice rehabilitation aims to eliminate and improve all problems related to vocal sounds (phonation) creation in the voice box (larynx). Once you complete voice therapy, you should have a strong voice sounding the same way as before. Since voice therapy is helpful for voice training, it is useful in treating various voice-related disorders (dysphonia).
A voice disorder refers to a persisting change in your voice. In these cases, the voice is often hoarse, strained, soundless, or husky.
During this point, the voice is weak and less powerful. If you have a voice disorder, you may find it hard to hold high or low notes when singing. You can also speak in a deep or high voice.
In other cases, you can experience aphonia where the voice disappears. Our speech-language pathologists work with you in these cases to help you regain your voice. We create a personalized program that improves voice strength and quality.
Types of Voice Disorders (Dysphonia)
Functional Voice Disorders
If you speak frequently or loudly, you can experience functional voice disorders. When speaking, some people use a lot of tension or force without being aware. It can be from stress or learned behavior.
Psychogenic Voice Disorders
This type of disorder causes the voice to become cracked, hoarse, or completely silent. It happens after a distressing psychological event such as persistent stress or mental illness such as depression.
Organic Voice Disorders
It is a result of changes that affect the voice box. However, issues such as vocal nodules can arise due to functional voice disorders. Organic voice disorders can be due to paralysis of the vocal cords. This problem can occur after thyroid surgery. Smoking, stroke, inflammations, or laryngeal (voice box) cancer can also cause these disorders.
Schedule an appointment today
Do you want to improve the quality of your voice? Contact us for voice therapy today.
Signs and Symptoms of Dysphonia
Dysphonia encompasses all the auditory voice disorders where a patient has loss of voice quality, loudness, pitch, or vocal effort. You may need voice therapy if you exhibit the following symptoms.
- Roughness in your voice
- Breathiness
- Strangled quality where breath is held when speaking.
- Abnormal pitch where the voice is too high, too low or decreases in pitch range or breaks.
- Strained quality where you have increased effort when talking.
- Abnormal resonance
- Abnormal loudness
- phonation breaks
- hoarse voice
- pulsed voice
- Asthenia (weak voice)
- Shaky voice
- Shrill voice (high piercing sound)
Other symptoms include:
- Quickly running out of breath
- Varying voice quality throughout the day or when speaking
- Worsening coughing or clearing the throat as you continue to use your voice.
- Reduced vocal endurance or experiencing fatigue with continued voice use
You may experience separate signs and symptoms or a combination. As you continue to do voice therapy exercises as advised by the speech therapist, some symptoms will reduce. Other symptoms can also arise as you continue with therapy.
Role of Speech-Language Pathologists in Voice Therapy
If you have any of the above symptoms, you should visit a speech-language pathologist for voice therapy. These therapists play a crucial role in assessing, diagnosing, and treating these disorders.
When you visit our center at OneRehab multispecialty center, our SLPs will evaluate your voice use and vocal function to know the cause of the problem.
A clear evaluation helps determine the best form of treatment. We will help you with the following:
- Offer a proper diagnosis of the voice disorder.
- Offer prevention advice to patients helping them manage the voice disorder or prevent recurrence once the patient improves.
- Evaluate your vocal habits to identify normal and abnormal functions.
- Assess and determine the need for surgery where we can offer a referral to facilitate treatment.
- Determine a treatment plan for the voice disorder depending on a patient’s condition.
- Work with family members and caregivers to facilitate treatment and ensure there is supervision to achieve necessary progress.
What to Expect During Voice Therapy
When you visit our voice therapists, we evaluate the condition and look at your medical history. We also ask various questions to determine your lifestyle and how therapy will assist you in regaining voice quality. Once the evaluation is complete, the speech-language pathologist designs a goal-oriented treatment plan. Therapy can include:
- Breathing exercises: You can practice how to engage your diaphragm more when breathing. You also learn how to coordinate your breathing and speech better.
- Jaw and mouth muscles Exercises: Our therapists can also include chewing, sighing, and intentional yawning as a form of therapy.
- You can also learn relaxation exercises that reduce tension, helping to improve the strength of your voice.
- Voice therapy can also involve exercises that improve one’s posture.
To achieve voice goals for speech therapy, the SLP will use the following techniques.
Vocal Hygiene
The SLP will encourage you to make necessary changes in your lifestyle. As a result, you develop better and healthy voice habits. Practicing voice habits will entail:
- Resting or relaxing your voice for a certain duration.
- Avoid making loud noises, shouting, or screaming.
- Eat healthy meals
- Reducing alcohol consumption
- Avoid coughing or clearing your throat
- Avoid smoking and reduce exposure to secondhand smoke.
- Drink enough water
Vocal Therapy
Vocal therapy entails the change of voice production biomechanics. It helps to improve function and quality. This treatment introduces exercises that strengthen the vocal cords, build endurance, and improve flexibility. As a result, a patient achieves the balance of respiration, resonation, and phonation. Speech-language pathologists will use:
Physiologic Voice Therapy
It is a comprehensive treatment approach that offers balance in the three subsystems of voice production. These types of voice therapy include:
- Vocal function exercises
- Accent Method
- Lee Silverman Voice Treatment
- Phonation Resistance Training Exercise
- Cup Bubble/Lax Vox
- Stretch and Flow Phonation
- Expiratory Muscle Strength Training
- Manual Circumlaryngeal Techniques
Symptomatic Voice Therapy
Symptomatic voice therapy focuses on deviant vocal symptoms modification. It can be high or low pitch or when the voice is too soft or loud. This treatment uses various techniques such as:
- Amplification
- Biofeedback
- Chant Speech
- Auditory Masking
- Glottal fry
- Posture
- Inhalation Phonation
- Confident Voice
- Twang Therapy
- Yawn-Sing
- Semi-Occluded Vocal Tract Exercises
If you are looking for a voice rehabilitation clinic near me, look no further than OneRehab multispecialty center. We use different approaches during therapy to achieve the desired results. In cases where fear and anxiety contribute to voice disorders, we work together with therapists to foster healing.
OneRehab
1761 International Pkwy Suite 135, Richardson, TX 75081, United States
Email Us
info@onerehab.com
Call Us
972 845 7875
Working Hours
M - F 7:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Sat 8:00 AM – 2:00 PM
