Resonant therapy is an approach for improving vocal health and daily communication, featuring teaching the fundamentals of voice production, employing key techniques, treating common resonance disorders and tailoring treatment according to each individual’s specific needs.
Speech depends on a delicate balance between vibrations in the pharynx (throat), nasal cavity and mouth – when any one of these areas fails to close correctly it leads to abnormal speech sounds.
Resonant Voice Therapy (RVT)
Resonant Voice Therapy (RVT) is an effective method to increase vocal quality, increase range, and decrease strain on the voice. Utilizing adaptive strategies designed to optimize vocal resonance, Resonant Voice Therapy teaches individuals to produce strong, clear, and powerful voices – often used by singers, teachers, public speakers or people suffering from vocal cord granulomas or chronic throat issues.
RVT provides students with the physiologic foundations necessary for healthy and efficient phonation by emphasizing forward focus, easy phonation and sensory awareness. Starting from basic speech gestures through grammar and conversational speech production and voiceless productions such as humming or voiceless productions to develop vibratory sensations essential for healthy adult voice phonation.
A trainer starts with an easy training phrase such as repeating /molm/ at both high and low pitches to train clients to feel oral vibratory sensations on their alveolar ridge and lips, essential in making sure that the laryngeal mechanism functions effectively and ensures light yet efficient voice production without losing clarity or sound intensity.
Subsequent sessions see the therapist increasing the frequency and repeating other sounds/vowels introduced during training stimuli, as well as adding in various sounds/vowels. She will also teach various vocal function exercises including semi-occluded vocal tract exercise, humming/easy onset phonation exercises and voicing certain words such as “mom.”
As clients progress through various stages of RVT, generalization occurs. This transition occurs as they transition their resonant voice technique to functional contexts like asking and answering questions during everyday dialogues.
Voice therapy seeks to teach patients how to utilize their resonant voice on an everyday basis until it becomes second nature, such as practicing techniques at home and encouraging clients to take steps towards maintaining it by avoiding actions which cause strain, staying hydrated, and refraining from vocal abuse.
Vocal Resonance Therapy (VRT)
Vocal Resonance Therapy (VRT) is an innovative form of vocal training that helps people manage negative emotions associated with persecuting voices and become more assertive and build self-esteem. VRT has proven particularly successful when used for patients suffering from psychosis such as schizophrenia; its combination of cognitive and experiential elements proves more successful than traditional CBT approaches in treating voices.
Comparative to its control group counterpart, VRT significantly improved AVH outcomes such as distress, beliefs, and engagement. The study employed an innovative design by combining CBTp with VRT in the same group of participants for 12 weeks of treatment; patients received one hour per week.
CBTp takes a more subdued approach and focuses on changing core beliefs that contribute to hearing voices, such as replacing maladaptive thoughts with adaptive ones, offering alternative explanations of them, and challenging unhelpful beliefs. Furthermore, this form of therapy also teaches patients to change their appraisals of hearing voices, test coping mechanisms and identify unhelpful coping behaviors – often combined with exposure techniques like visualizing voices in realistic settings or physically confronting them directly.
VRT takes an experiential approach and incorporates techniques like vocal confrontations and virtual reality (VR). Patients were immersed in this virtual reality (VR) environment and encouraged to enter an intimate dialogue with their avatar – which was animated in real time by the therapist – so as to learn how to respond to persecutory voices that may be pervasive in their daily lives. Participants found this therapeutic encounter highly rewarding, feeling empowered through interactions with their avatars; some reported new understandings about themselves while others felt liberated from these voices altogether and started fresh chapters in life.
VRT therapy not only addresses psychological symptoms, but it may also have beneficial physical outcomes by altering breathing patterns and decreasing respiratory reactivity. A small RCT that compared VRT with respiratory physiotherapy found that VRT patients experienced greater improvements in terms of VC, TLC, FEV1.0 and MMF than those receiving respiratory physiotherapy treatments.
Hypernasality Therapy
Your child may exhibit hypernasal speech if they speak through their nose too frequently and often sound muffled or congested when speaking through it. This may be caused by abnormal opening or movement of their uvular valve (the muscle between their mouth and nasal cavity), physical obstruction in throat or nose or neurological issues like Velopharyngeal Incompetence or Aural Atresia that lead them to speak more through their nose than usual during speech.
An evaluation from a speech-language pathologist will help pinpoint the source of hypernasality in your child. They use conversational samples of their speech as opposed to single words to gain a more complete picture of your child’s voice and what could be contributing to its symptoms.
Children often become hypernasal due to a problem with their uvular valve during speech, leading to an overactive resonator and high vowel sounds being more nasal than usual. A speech-language pathologist should identify this issue so they can devise a treatment plan and help your child with his speech.
SLPs may use various approaches to treat children with hypernasality, depending on what is causing their symptoms. When there is no structural abnormality present, speech-language pathologists focus on teaching your child how to better utilize lips, tongue and airflow for reduced hypernasality; in particular teaching them non-nasal sounds as well as listening to others speak and learning how to adjust velum placement for normal resonance.
For cases involving physical blocks, speech-language pathologists often recommend consulting a craniofacial or cleft palate specialist who will conduct an in-depth assessment of your child’s anatomy and velopharyngeal function using specialized equipment. They may suggest surgery such as palatal flap or sphincter pharyngoplasty in order to increase movement of uvular valve during speech; and suggest speech therapy before and after this procedure as possible solutions.
Hyponasality Therapy
Hyponasality occurs when not enough sound reverberates through your child’s nose when speaking, leading to muffled and distorted speech as well as seeming as though they are speaking too softly or mumbling when speaking out loud.
Causes for this condition can range from physical or structural issues, to neurological ones. Most often, an otolaryngologist will address its root cause before providing treatment by an authorized speech-language pathologist.
Speech therapy can assist your child in learning to speak more fluently through various strategies. They will practice their articulation skills both during sessions and at home in order to enhance the sound quality of their speech sounds. A speech therapist will work alongside them on how best to form words and phrases; additionally they may show your child how to control their breath for clearer communication.
Children born with a cleft palate or lip have an increased risk of resonance disorders due to Velopharyngeal Dysfunction (VPD). Children suffering from VPD often struggle to balance airflow, making vocalizations more challenging. Possible causes for VPD may include crooked septums, enlarged tonsils, swollen adenoids or nasal polyps.
Some children’s hypernasality can be linked to neurological conditions, including traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, autism spectrum disorder, apraxia or genetic conditions like myotonic dystrophy or Prader-Willi syndrome. In these instances, however, the root cause isn’t a structural one but instead stems from behavioral speech issues which may require therapy as treatment solutions.
Your child’s school may be the first to notice speech sound issues and refer them for evaluation by a speech-language pathologist. Once at an evaluation appointment, a therapist will conduct an assessment in order to establish what has caused hyponasality and suggest treatment plans accordingly.
If the root cause is structural, otolaryngological treatment will likely be required to address it. They could receive decongestants or nasal sprays for congestion control or possible surgery to correct an irregular septum or remove polyps. They’ll still benefit from speech therapy sessions just like those who suffer from functional causes; together with working closely with their otolaryngologist they should manage articulation and breathing properly.
