Voice results from the air that comes out of the lungs and passes through the vocal cords. The latter is also known as the voice box. Speech results from the vibration of the chords. Voice disorder might occur for various reasons such as tone, pitch, and volume of the if the voice. The roots of all problems boil down to the malfunctioning of the cords.

Voice disorder examples:

Laryngitis: Laryngitis results from the swelling of the vocal cords. It can lead to a temporary halt of voice or a voice with hoarseness. It often occurs due to a viral attack in the respiratory tract. It can last from a few days to a few weeks. The treatment suggested for cases like these include resting the voice and intake of a lot of fluids. Some common causes that are responsible for laryngitis are GERD, chronic cough, and asthma.
Vocal cord paralysis: Paralysis of the vocal cord can be temporary or permanent. The possible cause of this scenario can be from viral infection, cancer, surgical injury to the nerve etc. In the case of a paralysis of the vocal cord, a person might find difficulty in breathing, can result in weak voice etc. While this condition improves for many people with voice therapy and surgery, for some they permanently lose their ability to speak.
Spasmodic dysphonia: The vocal cord spasm due to a problem with the nerve. This condition can lead to a quivery, hoarse, groaning or jerky voice. In this condition, a person might find it easy to speak at times and have difficulty in speaking later. Botulinum toxin and speech therapy help to improve this condition.
Possible causes of voice disorders:

Growth: Extra tissue formation on the vocal cords might stop the vocal cords to work properly leading to voice disorders. The growth can be treated with injection, medicine or surgery.
Swelling and inflammation: Exposure to chemicals, vocal and alcohol abuse, surgery-related complications can lead to inflammation or swelling of the vocal cords resulting in voice-related problems.
Hormone: Disorder of the male, female and thyroid hormone can lead to voice related disorders affecting speech.
Symptoms of voice disorders:

The harshness of the voice
Voice is breathy, weak and whispery
The voice sounds like choppy or strained
A quivering sound while speaking
The voice sounds harsh or rough while speaking
Diagnosis of Voice related disorders:
Voice related disorders can be detected through a process known as Laryngoscopy. This helps a doctor to view the throat region and find out the possible culprit that may be causing the problem. Some other popular methods are stroboscopy, EMG and imaging tests such as MRI and X-Ray of the throat.

Voice Disorders - Signs You Are Suffering From It!

It might happen that you may not find your child, at twelve months to two years of age, at the same level as their peers in verbal communication. You think it's just a developmental problem they are facing and put off seeking professional advice; an intrinsically wrong step to take, because your child might be suffering from Speech Delay.
Delayed speech, or alalia, can be roughly defined as a delay in the development and use of the biological mechanisms that produce speech.
The symptoms of speech delay are roughly categorized into age related groups, generally beginning at the age of 12 months and continuing through the early adolescence, and they are:
1. Age-12 months
a. It is indeed a symptom if your child cannot point at objects or cannot manage gestures, such as waving good-bye.
b. Another symptom is that if your child does not prefer to communicate verbally as much as his/her peers.
2. Age-15-18 months
a. If your child is unable to pronounce familiar syllables or simply cannot call you even by this time, it's a worrying symptom.
b. You find your child unable to, or simply not reciprocating to 'no', 'hello', 'hi', 'bye'.
c. If your child is unable to extend his/her vocabulary up to 15 words by fifteen months, then it's a symptom.
3. Age-2-4 years
a. You find your child unable to spontaneously produce speech and words.
b. Another worrying symptom is if your child is lacking consonant sounds at the beginning and end of words while speaking.
c. If you still find your child unable to form simple sentences and words, then it is indeed a troubling symptom, confirming the disorder.
The causes for the speech delay disorder are:
1. A primary cause can be physical disruption in parts of the mouth such lips or palate, which may be deformed.
2. Another serious cause can be an oral-motor dysfunction which is the disruption in the creation of the specific area of the brain which deals with speech and communication.
3. The disorder can also be attributed to impairment in the development of the child's intellectual, receptive and expressive abilities.
4. There can also be psychological causes involving school environment and peer relationships which might lead to disruption of speech patterns and reluctance in speech expression and development.

Causes and symptoms of Delayed Speech

Change in voice or voice mutilation happens when the voice breaks that commonly occur when a person reaches puberty. Before puberty, almost all the girls and boys have the same voice pitch. But after puberty, a boy s voice deepens an octave and the girl s voice deepens only several tones. Therefore, it becomes easy to identify the gender through voice. 

Another type of change in voice is known as voice crack. It happens when a person unintentionally enters a higher voice pitch zone for a brief period of time. It may be due to singing, shouting, talking in noise, and several other reasons. Also, there are several medical conditions leading to voice break or hoarseness. 

Medical Causes for Change in Voice

Acute Laryngitis: In this, the hoarseness or voice loss starts suddenly. One of the reasons can be a viral infection that causes swelling of vocal cords. Staying hydrated and less talk can treat it. 

Chronic Laryngitis: It can cause acid reflux disease. Exposure to irritating smoke, infections of vocal cords, or asthma can be some of the reasons. It can be cured only through medication.

Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Disease: This problem causes a change in voice. Due to this disease, people may also suffer from swelling issues, a lump in the throat, hoarseness in voice, and throat pain. 

Voice Misuse: Excessively loud voice, prolonged talking, and inefficient voice use can cause a change in voice and also known as voice misuse. 

Risk Factors That Can Cause Voice Disorder

Aging, alcohol use, and allergies are some of the major reasons for the voice disorder. Apart from these, smoking and throat cancer also results in a change in voice or voice disorders. All these are highly risky causes for the throat and may result in long-time problems. 

Some other risk factors are thyroid, psychological stress, and neurological disorder. 

How to Treat Voice Disorder?

One can use an air humidifier to keep the air of the surrounding moist because breathing moist air is a simple solution to the problem.

Giving rest to voice is also a solution.

One must drink plenty of liquids to keep the throat hydrated.

One must avoid whispering and decongestants to take care of the throat.

One must avoid shouting for a long time.

Avoid staying in a polluted area for a long time.

Gargling the throat every day with lukewarm water is good.

Staying warm during winters is also necessary.

All these remedies are simple and can be tried comfortably. A simple change in voice can turn out to be serious if not taken proactive measures. Therefore, one must not ignore any small unintentional change in the voice.

Conclusion
One must consult ENT doctor immediately for any sudden change in voice and if the problem lasts for a long period of time. 



Change In Voice - What Can Cause It?

Stuttering is a type of speech disorder wherein, a person speaks slower than normal. It is quite  common in the age group of 3 to 8. The relationship between stress and stuttering has been pondered over for decades now. A lot of people seem to believe that stress and stuttering are co-related. On the contrary, recent studies show that stress is more of a consequence rather than a cause of stuttering. If you take the first theory into consideration, then according to that, children would be the greatest victims of anxiety and stress. But it is seen that the level of stress increases proportionately with the increase in age.

Social anxiety in teenagers increases due to stuttering, when they come across individuals who can speak in a normal pace. This in turn can crush their self confidence and lead them to isolate themselves from social groups and people in general. Hence, it is important to deal with stuttering in the early ages or as and when it occurs. 

Sometimes stuttering can develop due to physical or mental trauma.  Most people with stuttering do not seek therapy for it because they might not think of it to be too severe. Little do they realise that a simple process of speech therapy can help them overcome this disability and rejuvenate their level of self-confidence.

It has also come to light, that people with relapse in stuttering post therapy has shown a three-fold increase in anxiety levels than normal. Hence we cannot ignore the strong relationship between stress and stuttering. So from the above evidence, it is safe to conclude that social anxiety or stress develops as a result of chronic stuttering.

How to deal with stress related to stuttering?

Seeking help is a great start to tackle your disability. If your stuttering is prominent enough to warrant therapy, you must seek professional help for the same. You must also learn to control your anxiety by dismissing any anxious thought or make sincere efforts in controlling physical anxiety.

You can also try to increase your social skills by participating in events, such as public speaking that can reduce your stress levels and make yourself more confident about yourself. One must also remember that a person is defined by what he does rather than what he says. So never let a minor disability come in the way of your self worth!

Stress and Stuttering - How to Deal with It?

Speech therapy is a very distinct form of science that is often misunderstood by people in general. While the benefits of such a therapy is countless, people misinterpret what the therapy actually involves and what it does not. If you are avoiding speech therapy due to the following reasons, you should stop doing so as these are nothing but fabricated myths.

Speech therapy is all about talking: Do not think that speech therapy only involves talking with the therapist. The therapy focuses on the overall communication skills of a person, which definitely involves the speech but also the intricacies of articulation and body language. Sign aids and comprehension skills are also paid attention to in such a therapy session. So, if you feel that you have a problem regarding any one of these aspects, you need to visit a speech therapist.
Speech therapy is uninteresting: Nothing can be further from the truth than this. In fact, a visit to a dentist can be boring, but a visit to a speech therapist will always involve interesting activities such as tongue twisters. The therapists often treat children, which means that their offices, house toys, and other games designed to indulge the minds of infants as well.
A qualified speech therapist is needed for the therapy: Another myth, which needs to be dispelled, is that only a qualified speech therapist can help improve the speech of a person. In fact, any person who has a vast knowledge of diction, linguistic insight, and knowledge of grammar can help people with speech impairment. So, before visiting the doctor, the adults in the family should try and clear out the impairment themselves.
Speech therapy fixes issues in the snap of a finger: As with any kind of treatment, speech therapy does not work like magic. It is a continuous and long process that needs to be followed through. The pace of this treatment depends on the patient. Some patients are more receptive to this therapy than others. So, there is no guideline for the treatment of all speech-impaired individuals and one needs to be treated and allowed to get better at their own pace.
Your child will automatically learn perfect speech: If your child suffers from a speech impairment, do not delay a therapy session by thinking that he/she will automatically learn to speak better as they grow up. This way of thinking is not beneficial and hinders the eventual treatment for the impairment. The speech therapist can help you better if you bring your child to him/her as soon as you detect an issue. 

Don't Let These Myths Turn You Off From Speech Therapy

Autism is a kind of developmental disability, which usually crops up before a child attains the age of 3. It is just part of a group of neurological disorders, which involve impaired communication along with impairment in social interaction and cognitive skills. It is better known as Autism spectrum disorder, it might well be linked with a wide variety of traits.

The traits include:

Activities done on a repetitive basis.

Extreme level of resistance to changes brought about in daily routines.

Very unusual reactions to things like touch.

Problem having interactions with the environment.

Children suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder can have some of the major problems with regard to both speech and carry out communications in a non-verbal manner. Social interactions might also become very difficult propostions for them.

This is where, speech therapy comes to the rescue of these patients. It is the central part of treatment for autistic children. The speech therapy can help take care of a wide variety of communication problems occurring among people with autism.

Common Speech and Communication Problems Associated With Autism

Social communication, development of language and speech can get adversely affected by autism in more than one way.

A person with autism can have the speech problems, wherein they may:

Not communicate at all.

Tend to utter cries, grunts, shrieks, harsh or throaty sounds.

Talk or just hum in a musical manner.

Utter words, might can sound to be alien or robotic.

Often look to repeat whatever another person says.

Around 30% of people, suffering from autism has problem in producing speech sounds to ensure effective communication with others. The language, even if it is present, can be too difficult to be understood by others.

Communication problems can occur in various ways, for people who suffer from autism. The challenges faced by them while communicating are as follows:

Communication requires a person to make eye contact with another person or even make certain gestures. People with autism will have serious trouble in meeting up with the conversational skills.

They would have difficulty in understanding the meaning of words, which are out of context from what they have actually learned.

They would have very little understanding of the meaning of words and symbols.

Treatment through Speech Therapy

Speech therapy can help children get rid of the problems in speaking, as well as those related to communicating and interacting with others. This involves non-verbal skills such as making direct eye contact, taking initiative in conversations and understanding of different kinds of gestures.

This therapy can also teach children the art of expressing themselves by using picture symbols, computers or through sign language.

Five Principles of Speech Therapy

There are basically five principles used as a framework, to work upon in speech therapy with children, suffering from autism. They include:

Establishing Functional Communication In A Spontaneous Manner  

Providing Social Instruction in Different Settings throughout the Day

Target Peer Interactions

Even Provide Training and Support to Other Adults

Look to Fine Tune Communication Skills as Other Areas Improve.

How Speech Therapy Can Help Autistic Children?

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