Mirror, Mirror: How Our Voices Reflect Who We Are

As World Voice Day approaches on April 16, I’ve been reflecting on voice as “who we are,” “identity,” “gender,” “emotion” and “vocation.” As speech-language pathologists, we spend hours helping people find their voices. This could be with use of  augmentative and and alternative communication (AAC), increased fluency, or behavioral voice rehabilitation. For this article, I want to focus on voice as a whole, especially as an SLP who specializes in treating voice and upper airway disorders. Identity We all, in some way or another, feel our voice reflects our identity. If you ever experienced a voice disorder, or even lost your voice due to illness for a few days, you understand how most of us take our vocal folds for granted. Vocal folds are not the only way we create a voice. Many AAC devices now offer different qualities and pitches the user can customize to create a voice that better matches their identity. Many clients become upset and almost lost when they lose the ability to use their voices like they used to. They identify with a certain type of sound and often bring in audio recordings—which helps me immensely—of the voice they feel truly represents their identity. Ingo Titze—a professor of speech science and voice—talks about the epilarynx, or the vocal tract, being a shape that is specific to you. This shape, in combination with the specific length and thickness of your vocal cords, makes you sound unique. This shape ...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Tags: Private Practice Slider Speech-Language Pathology voice Voice Disorders Source Type: blogs