Resonance disorders in children can cause their voices to sound high-pitched or nasal, but speech therapy can remedy this type of issue without resorting to surgery.
Resonance refers to how sound vibrates within your mouth, nose and throat when speaking, with different shapes and sizes of these structures as well as closure of your velopharyngeal valve having different effects on how others hear your voice.
Resonance Disorders
Resonance refers to how airflow travels from mouth and nose during speech. If you or someone close to you has a resonance disorder, their voice could sound excessively nasal or congested and make understanding them difficult when speaking aloud. Furthermore, weak consonant sounds or abnormal articulation could arise as a result. Speech therapy can address these issues and enhance speech quality for all involved parties involved.
Resonant disorders result from issues with opening and closing of the velopharyngeal valve, which regulates airflow between mouth and nose during speech. These issues could include issues related to cleft palate, neurological conditions or enlarged adenoids – among others. Furthermore, people may develop these disorders due to childhood apraxia or surgery required for other medical concerns.
Speech therapists can assess resonance in you or someone you love and provide treatment to increase communication abilities. Most often, speech therapists can help alleviate issues without resorting to surgery.
Hypernasality and hyponasality are two forms of resonance disorders, respectively. Hypernasality refers to excessive sound coming through your nose while speaking, making your speech sound nasal or high-pitched – making it hard for others to comprehend your words. It’s most frequently encountered when speaking French, Portuguese or Hindi languages that contain numerous nasal sounds like in this example.
Hyponasality occurs when too little sound passes through the nose during speech, which makes speech sound breathy and muffled. It’s usually caused by nasal obstruction; however, mislearning or incorrect tongue position could also contribute to it.
Speech therapy exercises that focus on lip spreading and forward tongue carriage may help treat these symptoms. For instance, ask your patient to look into a mirror and say “ahh,” before lowering their tongue back behind their gumline while simultaneously raising their velum (soft part of roof of mouth) like they’re yawning – they should hear and sense a difference between nasalized vs oralized sounds when making this gesture.
Head Resonance
Cul de sac resonance disorders can make your voice sound nasal, closed, or trapped in your throat. They could be due to structural or functional causes; surgery may be needed for structural causes while functional causes can often be treated by speech therapy.
Speaking with head resonance causes sounds to vibrate through your nasal cavities, sinuses and oral cavity (the area inside your mouth). Singing guides refer to this phenomenon as head voice; typically brighter in tone with higher pitches than chest resonance, it is particularly popular among female singers or those capable of hitting high notes.
Pharyngeal resonance occurs when vibration occurs within the pharynx, or tube-like structure that connects from behind your nose to behind your throat. The pharynx can be divided into three areas depending on where its located: nasopharynx, oropharynx and laryngopharynx (also referred to as the palatal and hypopharynx).
Pharyngeal resonance affects any sound produced through lung breath, including vowels. This form of resonance can be detected across various languages and cultures; its causes are complex but include history of cleft palate, childhood apraxia of speech and enlarged adenoids.
Your speech therapist will conduct an evaluation of your vocal tract and velopharyngeal valve (the opening that allows air from the nose into your throat). They will examine vibrations within your pharynx and oral cavity and see whether they are moving correctly before creating a treatment plan that best meets your needs and goals. They may focus on improving articulation while increasing vocal fold motion as a form of therapy for treating Cul de Sac Resonance Disorders.
Pharyngeal Resonance
Pharyngeal resonance is an effective vocal technique that will add brilliance and warmth to your tone, as well as supporting full, round phrasing in the mixed voice register. Furthermore, this technique allows vocal projection without strain; unlike chest resonance which depends on using body cavities as resonating chambers or head resonance which uses skull bones for resonance chambering; instead pharyngeal resonance utilizes throat as resonator chamber creating richer sound with increased clarity and focus.
Natural vibrations produced in the pharynx (the tube-like passage that allows air, food, and liquid into the lungs) play a vital role in creating typical resonance. When these vibrations don’t operate as planned, imbalances in their production may arise which cause vocal disorders or voice disorders to manifest themselves.
Hyponasality, one of the more frequently occurring resonance disorders, occurs when there is too little vibration in the nasal and pharyngeal cavities during speech production. Symptoms include unnaturally weak, breathy or flat sound quality. Hyponasality could be caused by obstruction in the nasopharynx; neurological conditions; or surgical procedures such as tonsillectomy.
A physician may suggest using prosthetics to correct an imbalance between pharyngeal and nasal resonance, including fabrication of palatal lifts or nasal obturators to decrease airflow through the nasopharynx, along with medication that will decrease swelling or inflammation.
Resonance disorders are generally treatable through proper training and practice, especially the development of relaxation in vocal practice to ease tension around the throat and neck that obstruct free-flow of resonance. Regular non-speech vocal exercises that include semi-occluded consonants like voiced fricatives and nasals /m, n, ng/ can strengthen the muscles that produce pharyngeal resonance, leading to more efficient vibration in this part of the throat. Regaining their ability to produce powerful pharyngeal resonance can allow singers to unleash their full potential and mesmerize audiences worldwide. For more information about oral resonance therapy and how it can enhance and improve performance, reach out to an oral resonance speech therapy specialist now.
Oral Resonance
Resonance refers to how air is directed through nasal and oral cavities during speech, with distortions caused by various factors that alter its course through nasal and oral cavities. Common culprits for resonance issues include cleft palate, enlarged adenoids and childhood apraxia of speech – as well as neurological diseases like Parkinson’s Disease or other neurological issues – while resonance disorders often manifest themselves by hypernasality or hyponasality, with sound becoming trapped inside an oral, nasal or pharyngeal cavity but unable to escape, leaving lack of energy within voice quality or poor intelligibility resulting in energy within voice tone quality and poor intelligibility resulting in lack of energy within voice delivery resulting in reduced intelligibility and poor intelligibility compared with expectations resulting in energy within voice production as well as poor intelligibility and intelligibility issues.
Body tissue contains various resonating cavities, and for optimal voice function it is crucial that these resonators resonate at an ideal balance. Certain sounds require head resonance while others use nasal or oral resonance; depending on the sound you are making or your language’s phonology will determine which resonance you use – women usually speak using head resonance while men tend to favour nasal/throat resonances.
Speech-language pathologists can work with you to improve your resonance. For instance, if you suffer from hypernasality, their speech-language therapist can teach you to produce more oral sounds to reduce nasal resonance; conversely if hyponasality exists, their speech-language therapist can work to produce more nasal sounds so more air passes through your nose.
Velopharyngeal Dysfunction, or VPD, is another factor which can reduce resonance. When this condition arises, the soft palate does not close correctly, leading to symptoms like nasal regurgitation, decreased voice volume and diminished intelligibility. If this is your situation, speaking with a speech-language pathologist about therapy options that will assist with closing off the soft palate correctly may help remedy it.
Studies have demonstrated the efficacy of oral resonance voice therapy to increase femininity in male-to-female transsexual voices. One such study reported an increase in formant frequencies for vowels pre and post treatment from just five sessions of oral resonance voice therapy.
