• 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.

• Proceedings of the KSLP Conference
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• 2016.03a
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• pp.36-36
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• 2016

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.48-52
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• 2019

Background and Objectives : Functional aphonia is characterized by incomplete closure of the vocal folds. Semi-occluded vocal tract exercise (SOVTE) allows smoothly vocal folds collision without damage to the vocal folds tissues to produce normal vocal intensity. The purpose of this study is to report the effect of SOVTE in patients with functional aphonia. Materials and Method : Seven patients diagnosed with functional aphonia were treated with 1-3 voice therapy sessions using voiced lip-trill, humming, Lax Vox in SOVTE. To assess the effectiveness of semi-occluded vocal tract exercise, cepstral analysis and auditory perceptual assessment were performed before and after voice therapy. Results : F0 (fundamental frequency), CPP (cepstral peak prominence) and L/H ratio (low/high spectral ratio) were significantly increased, while CPP Standard deviation, L/H ratio Standard deviation were decreased. In addition, 'Grade', 'Breathiness' and 'Asthenia' were significantly decreased in the GRBAS scale after SOVTE (p<0.05). Conclusion : In our study, SOVTE seemed to be effective to elicit voice quickly and promote vocal folds vibration without muscular effort in patients with functional aphonia.