Voice practitioners require an objective index of dysphonia severity as a means to reliably track treatment outcomes. To ensure ecological validity however, such a measure should survey both sustained vowels and continuous speech. In an earlier study, a multivariate acoustic model referred to as the Acoustic Voice Quality Index (AVQI), consisting…

In a preliminary study, we documented significant changes in formant transitions associated with successful manual circumlaryngeal treatment (MCT) of muscle tension dysphonia (MTD), suggesting improvement in speech articulation. The present study explores further the effects of MTD on vowel articulation by means of additional vowel acoustic…

Two voice therapy approaches, vocal hygiene instruction and vocal function exercises, were compared for their functional effects with 58 teachers with voice disorders. Only the exercise group reported a significant reduction in perceived vocal handicap and this group also reported more overall voice improvement and greater ease and clarity in…