As a private practice pediatric SLP I don’t often work on voice. However, I’ve recently had the opportunity to brush up on my voice skills when one of my patients started expressing concern about her “raspy” voice. In her case, it’s something that runs in the family and is exacerbated by poor vocal hygiene so I made a handout for her and anyone else who needs some quick vocal hygiene information.
Here’s the link to the handout. It’s meant to be folded in half or printed double-sided so that each handout is 1/2 a page and has “healthy” on one side and “nodule” on the other. I printed one in color, folded it, and laminated it for my office and print others double-sided in black-and-white to be handed out to patients and their families.
During treatment I have kids list things we can do to keep our vocal cords healthy, like drink lots of water, avoid yelling, and get enough sleep. If I see one of these kids using poor vocal hygiene (by grunting or yelling) we work on their hygiene, but most of the kids I work with have the most trouble when they’re in noisy environments like school or home with siblings.
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