ABSTRACT
Abstract This study sought to measure any acoustic changes in the speaking voice immediately after phonation exercises involving plastic straws versus phonation exercises with the open vowel /a/. Forty-one primary school teachers with slightly dysphonic voices were asked to participate in four phonatory tasks. Phonetically balanced text at habitual intensity level and speaking fundamental frequency was recorded. Acoustical analysis with long-term average spectrum was performed. Significant changes after therapy for the experimental group include the alpha ratio, L1-L0 ratio and ratio between 1-5 kHz and 5-8 kHz. The results indicate that the use of phonatory tasks with straw exercises can have immediate therapeutic acoustic effects in dysphonic voices. Long-term effects were not assessed in this study.
Subject(s)
Acoustics , Dysphonia/therapy , Phonation , Phonetics , Speech Acoustics , Vocal Cords/physiopathology , Voice Quality , Voice Training , Dysphonia/diagnosis , Dysphonia/physiopathology , Humans , Sound Spectrography , Speech Production Measurement , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
OBJETIVO: el propósito de este estudio es conocer el efecto acústico inmediato de una secuencia de ejercicios fonatorios utilizando tubos de resonancia en un grupo de sujetos disfónicos. MÉTODO: se aplicó una secuencia única de cuatro tareas fonatorias dentro de tubos de resonancia a veinticuatro profesores con voces disfónicas, evaluadas perceptualmente con la escala GRBAS. Las muestras de voz fueron grabadas antes y después de la secuencia de ejercicios. El análisis acústico incluyó Cepstrum, Jitter, Shimmer y relación armónico-ruido (NHR). Se solitó completar un protocolo de autovaloración vocal posterior a la secuencia de ejercicios para evaluar los efectos subjetivos. Se compararon los valores de los parámetros acústicos en las muestras pre y post entrenamiento. RESULTADOS: cambios significativos fueron obtenidos en el análisis Cepstral, Jitter y relación armónico-ruido. En la autovaloración, los efectos positivos predominaron sobre los negativos, siendo los principales: voz más estable, voz más clara y garganta más abierta. CONCLUSIÓN: el uso de tareas fonatorias dentro de tubos de resonancia puede tener un efecto fisiológico terapéutico inmediato en sujetos con voces disfónicas y una percepción subjetiva de mejoría en la producción de la voz posterior a la terapia.
PURPOSE: the purpose of this study is to determine the immediately acoustic effect of phonatory exercise sequence using resonance tubes in a group of dysphonic subjects METHOD: a unique sequence of four phonatory tasks within resonance tubes was applied in twenty-four teachers with dysphonic voices, assessed perceptually with GRBAS scale. Voice samples were recorded before and after the exercise sequence. Acoustic analysis included the following items: Cepstrum, Jitter, Shimmer, noise-harmonic ratio (NHR). Subjects were asked to fill out a vocal self-assessment protocol after the exercise sequence in order to assess the subjective effects of these exercises. Acoustic parameters of voice samples pre and post training were compared. RESULTS: significant changes were obtained in the Cepstral analysis, jitter and harmonic-to-noise ratio. In the self-assessment, positive effects prevailed over the negative ones, being the main, as follows: more steady voice, more clear voice and more open throat sensation. CONCLUSION: the outcome indicates that the use of phonatory tasks with resonance tubes may have immediate therapeutic physiological effects on subjects with hoarse voices and a subjective perception of improvement in voice production after the therapy.
