Swallowing, Voice & Speech Rehab Clinic
Voice Disorder
Voice Disorder
What is voice disorder?
Voice disorder can be defined as a problem involving abnormal pitch, loudness or quality of the sound produced by the larynx, more commonly known as the voice box. Almost every disorder may present in more than one symptom and one cannot associate one single symptom with one specific voice disorder. For example, hoarseness, increased vocal effort or limitations in pitch and loudness may be a sign of any number of disorders. Severity of the voice symptoms varies according to the disorder and the individual. Voice disorders may be present in both adults and children
What symptoms should I look out for?
Symptoms may include any of the following: hoarseness, shortness of breath, harsh or rough voice, breathy voice, decrease in pitch range, decrease in loudness, deterioration of the voice as the day goes by, loss of voice, increased strain to speak, tension in neck muscles. If symptoms persist for more than three weeks one should seek advice.
People develop voice problems for many reasons, from misusing their vocal cords, allergies, neurological problem, surgeries such as thyroidectomy or heart bypasw to cancer.
At SVS we use LingWAVES which is one of the top assessment tools to assess our patients’ voice. LingWAVES is an exceptional computer-based real-time visualization tool for voice and speech characteristics like voicing/voice onset, loudness (intensity), articulation/coarticulation and prosody, designed with affection and care. It provides a visual biofeedback of quantitative and qualitative characteristics of a patient’s voice/speech and therefore contributes to the enhancement of a patient’s self-perception and motivation.
The Speech-Language Pathologists at SVS are well trained in variety of voice treatment methods such as the accent method, Vocal Function exercises and breathing exercises.
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