• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.43-47
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• 2021

Voice therapy is effective in many voice and speech disorders. However, patients have low accessibility to therapeutic facilities due to disease-unrelated reasons such as lack of time and pandemic of COVID-19. Contactless voice therapy could be an alternative and may helpful to all patients with voice and speech problems. We developed contactless voice and speech therapy program on the necessity of improving accessibility. Herein, we report the first case of voice therapy to 30 year-old female patient who complained voice change after total thyroidectomy using contactless voice and speech therapy service platform in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.52-56
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• 2009

Background and Objectives : Vocal nodule is common inflammatory vocal cord lesion which could be improved by voice rest or voice therapy. But some patients, who do not have any improvement after voice therapy, should take laryngomicorsurgery or additional long-term voice therapy. So we try to find prognostic factors which affect the results of voice therapy. Materials and Methods: There are 36 patients (response group) whose symptoms improved after initial voice therapy and 16 patients (no response group) whose symptoms did not improve at all. We compared clinical features (durations of symptoms, voice abuse, laryngopharyngeal reflux), GRBAS scale, acoustic analysis, aerodynamic analysis and voice handicap index between the two groups from January, 2006 to June, 2008. Results: Response group underwent voice therapy 4.5 times (ave.) and no response group underwent 6.7 times (ave.). No response group has longer duration of symptoms, higher GRBAS scale score, higher NIH ratio, and higher MFR than those of response group. Conclusion : This study found that the prognosis of voice therapy in patients who have longer duration of symptoms, high NIH ratio, and bad perceptional test result is not likely to be good. In those cases, we should recommend earlier surgery, voice therapy after surgery, and inform about the necessity of long-term voice rehabilitation or voice therapy in order to get favorable compliance.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.57-63
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• 2016

Recently, the Lax Vox voice therapy has been used as one of the SOVTE(Semi-Occluded Vocal Tracts Exercise). The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of Lax Vox voice therapy for a patient with Spasmodic dysphonia on voice improvement. One female spasmodic dysphonia patient(age=27) who had been diagnosed by a laryngologist received Lax Vox voice therapy. The Lax Vox protocol was configured as 5 steps (1 warm-up and 4 steps : bubbling without / with phonation/ gliding with phonation/ generalization) in this study. A total of 11 sessions were performed by a certified speech language pathologist. The present study evaluated the acoustic, aerodynamic, auditory perceptual, and patient's self-rating between pre-, mid-, and post- voice therapy. All objective and subjective parameters were improved after voice therapy; Reduced frequency variation, increased maximum phonation time, enlarged voice range, improved 'G' and 'S' in GRBAS & USDRS, and reduced VHI were observed. Especially, decreased $f_0$ and remarkably reduced voice tremor were also demonstrated following Lax Vox voice therapy. Accordingly, Lax Vox voice therapy technique can be useful for improving voice and quality of life in patients with spasmodic dysphonia.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.45-50
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• 2016

Background and Objectives : This study aims to conduct post-voice therapy to patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis for vocal improvement, motility recovery and analyze the results. Materials and Methods : Voice therapy was conducted to 13 patients who had shown response to voice therapy amongst 98 patients diagnosed with unilateral vocal fold paralysis. In order to be able compare before and after perceptual, acoustic and aerodynamic evaluations were conducted after voice therapy. Also, by using dysphagia checklist, we have verified whether if the patient had dysphagia prior to voice therapy. The therapy was conducted by improving the larynx movement and glottal contact, whilst removing hypertension of the supraglottic. Results : All 13 patients who underwent voice therapy had shown improvements that are statistically significant from 4 scales excluding the S scale from auditory perception evaluation (p<0.05), with enhanced glottal contact. In acoustic evaluation, Jitter, Shimmer and NHR had shown significant improvement after voice therapy. MPT was also notably improved among aerodynamical evaluation (p<0.001). All 11 patients had with dysphagia prior to voice therapy reported to have improved swallowing functions. Conclusion : Application of adequate voice therapy to patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis, is an effective method that might be employed in the initial phase. Especially, the voice therapy proposed in this study is expected to be useful for patients in hypertension status due to secondary compensation after initial paralysis, since it focuses on improving vocal symptoms in a calm state with the supraglottis sufficiently relaxed. Also, the therapy is expected to be effective for improving swallowing functions.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.165-171
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• 2010

Vocal process granuloma can occur commonly by laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR), vocal abuse or misuse. It has been reported that voice therapy is employed with medication therapy for the patients who has vocal process granuloma, however research about effect of voice therapy can be hardly founded. For that matter, the primary aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of therapeutic method we implement. Thirty one patients who has been diagnosed with vocal process granuloma from January, 2007 to June, 2009 participated in this study. 19 patients among them are provided voice therapy and medication, 12 patients take only medication. Voice therapy is implemented ranging from 5 to 19 sessions (mean: 8.6 sessions). We provided explanation about problem each patient has, voice rest, SKMVTT$^{(R)}$, abdominal breathing, and relaxation in session. All subjects were examined by videostroboscopy, perceptual assessment, acoustic and aerodynamic measures. Consequantly, the greater part of the patients (78.9%) who is treated by voice therapy and medication are confirmed disappearance or decrease of granuloma, it shows better results compared with the group provided only medication (66.7%). Especially, the period of drug administration is 3.7 months in the group runs parallel with voice therapy, the period of other group is 7.8 months. The results of acoustic and aerodynamic measures after treating indicates there are significant decrease in Jitter, Shimmer, and NHR, and increase in MPT, Psub (p<.05). However, there is no large difference statistically even though voice quality has improved since the therapy. In conclusion, it is verified that the voice therapy to the vocal process granuloma patients taking medication is effectual method, we recommend combining voice therapy with medication when treatment is needed for the vocal process granuloma patients.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.13-18
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• 2020

Background and Objective The purpose of this study is to report the effect of voice therapy using the voice reinforcement method (VRM) in patients with vocal nodules. It is one of the holistic voice therapy methods for improving vocal mechanisms. VRM includes not only direct and indirect voice therapy, but also trial therapy and self-practice. Composed of four stages: vocal hygiene education, relaxation, reinforcement, and generalization. Materials and Methods The subjects were 13 patients who were diagnosed with vocal nodules. Acoustic analysis, auditory perceptual assessment, K-VHI-10 and nodules size were compared before and after voice therapy. Voice therapy was conducted by speech-language pathologist and the mean number was 4.2. Results In acoustic analysis, Jitter, vF₀, vAm, Shimmer, NHR, and VTI were significantly decreased. F₀ was increased after voice therapy for women. 'Grade', 'Rough,' and 'Breathy' were significantly decreased in the GRBAS scale after voice therapy. In addition, K-VHI-10 and nodules size were significantly decreased. Conclusion VRM seems to be an effective voice therapy method in vocal nodules treatment. In VRM, especially, trial therapy is given motivation for vocal nodules treatments and self-practice has a continuous therapeutic effect in everyday life. VRM can be also applied to the voice therapy for other hyper-functional dysphonia.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.133-137
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• 2006

Objectives : The purpose of this paper is to know the efficacy of voice therapy for vocal fold nodules in children. Materials and Methods : Sixty two patients with vocal nodules(46 boys and 16 girls) were retrospectively reviewed. Age ranged from 4 to 15 years with mean age of 8 years. Questionnaire survey was carried out with voice handicap index, at pretherapy and post-therapy(3 months and 5 years after voice therapy). Results : Sixty two percent of the patients showed improvement by voice therapy. Twenty five patients continued education at home after voice therapy, but only eight childrens were included this group in pre-school aged children. Voice handicap index was improved in 3 months and 5 years after voice therapy. In contrast, pre-school children group showed slight aggravation in 5 years, especially in emotional subdomain. Conclusion : Voice therapy is effective primary treatment in children with vocal fold nodules. Different result between preschool aged children and school aged group shows needs for age specific approach of voice therapy.

• Korean Journal of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
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• v.61 no.12
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• pp.686-691
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• 2018

Background and Objectives Previous studies have suggested the usefulness and importance of postoperative voice therapy, for which there are indirect and direct methods. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of treatment according to different voice therapy methods. Subjects and Method Patients with vocal polyp were divided into three groups. Group 1 received direct voice therapy after phonomicrosurgery and Group 2 indirect voice therapy after phonomicrosurgery. Group 3 did not receive any voice therapy. Results Perceptual, acoustic, aerodynamic voice outcome parameters differed significantly between pre and post-operative treatments. In almost all of the voice analysis, Group 1, who underwent direct voice therapy, improved more significantly compared with Group 2 and 3. Conclusion Postoperative voice therapy following phonomicrosurgery may be an effective adjuvant treatment in patients with vocal polyps. In particular, direct voice therapy can be effective for improving postoperative voice outcome.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.130-141
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• 2022

Voice and speech therapy can be performed in various ways depending on the situation, although it is generally performed in a face-to-face manner. Telepractice refers to the provision of specialized voice and speech therapy by speech-language pathologists for assessment, therapy, and counseling by applying telecommunication technology from a remote location. Recently, due to the pandemic situation and the active use of non-face-to-face platforms, interest in telepractice of voice and speech therapy has increased. Moreover, a growing body of literature has been advocating its clinical usefulness and non-inferiority to traditional face-to-face intervention. In this review, the existing discussions, guidelines, and preliminary studies on non-face-toface voice and speech therapy were summarized, and recommendations on the tools for telepractice were provided.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.32-38
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• 2000

Background and Objectives : Voice therapy has been used as a viable adjuvant to surgery and pharmacological therapy fir the management of voice disorders. The singing voice features a special brand of emotion, intensity, and energy so successful therapeutical approach requires the doctor is able to involve himself into the physical and psychic condition and artistic usage of the voice. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect and utility of singing therapy as an initial treatment for classically trained singers with voice disorders. Material and method : Twenty-one male and fifty-five female classic singers with voice disorders were treated with singing therapy. At first, abdominal breathing, resonant phonation, and relaxation method was trained, then after accessing each patient's singing abilities, treatment methods for each specific problems was applied. The results were compared according to age, sex, treatment duration, part, laryngeal pathology, patient subjective evaluation, perceptual evaluation of voice, and maximal phonation time. Results : Patients subjective evaluation, perceptual evaluation, pathologic findings of larynx, maximal phonation time showed superior results after singing therapy. Conclusion : Singing therapy changes the mode of respiration and phonation and enhances the vocal function and improves the laryngeal pathology, The result of this study indicate that singing therapy is an effective treatment method that laryngologists can use for classical singers with voice disorders.