Improve Your Projection, Laryngeal Pathologies, WRDE Conference, and PYV!!

Enjoy some educational & inspiring blog reading & be sure to roll your shoulders & focus on "low and slow" & nasal breathing as you do! Make it a great day.

Improve Your PROJECTION...

A LOT patients and clients that I work with want to know how to improve their ability to PROJECT the voice.

There are SO many professions that require the use of PROJECTION, including occupations involving public speaking, teaching, coaching, instructing, and speaking to an audience. Often projection is required in the midst of background noise (music, talking, environmental noise, etc.), and many times this projection has a PURPOSE— to motivate, inspire, gain attention, and/or guide others to a common goal.

When I teach PROJECTION, I approach it from several different perspectives… And I truly believe the way that I teach it guides the patient AWAY from any throat-focus and/or vocal effort, because of the strong emphasis and training around incorporating all the beautiful ways we can utilize our BODY for SUPPORT, recruit our BREATH for ENERGY, manipulate our RESONANCE for ENERGY and AMPLIFICATION, and as this article points out, CAPITALIZE on our ARTICULATION. Additionally, I do spend a lot of time discussing what I like to call VOCAL SPICE, which includes all the many ways we can use our voice DYNAMICALLY to enhance message delivery and overall engagement, emphasizing that we don’t always HAVE to be projecting, but instead can actually make a bigger IMPACT in the VARIETY of ways we USE our voice.

This article points out how Arthur Lessac created a voice training approach that focuses on three energies (structural action, tonal action, and CONSONANT ACTION). The LMRVT approach mostly focuses on resonance, but this article (along with A LOT of amazing research work on CONVERSATION TRAINING THERAPY/CTT!!), highlights the importance of using ARTICULATORY PRECISION and the benefits of CLEAR/CRISP articulation to ENHANCE speaking voice, especially related to PROJECTION. Study results showed a strong correlation between the ARTICULATORY CONDITION and the level of perceived LOUDNESS and PROJECTION.

What an EASY way to enhance projection and perceived loudness!! The GOAL is alwaaays EFFICIENCY, EASE, and the MOST VOICE with the LEAST amount of effort. Incorporate some FOCUS on articulatory/consonant ENERGY the next time you need to PROJECT and notice the difference in vocal POWER!

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#voxfit #voice #projection #voicesfittoinspire #chooseyourbestvoice #consonantenergy #conversationtrainingtherapy #arthurlessac #research #projectyourvoice #vocalenergy #energyvseffort #speechpathology #speechpathologist #voicespecialist #prioritizeyourvoice
 

Some Laryngeal Pathologies.... 

To be honest, as much as I LOVE to share photos of the vocal folds, this graphic is actually from one of the slides in our upcoming three hour course we are giving this weekend at the Western Regional Dental Experience. We’ve been working HARD on creating the talk and I gotta say these slides are coming together soooo nicely and @scharns and I are REALLY excited to spread the good word about VOICE, UPPER AIRWAY, and DYSPHAGIA (including oral/head/neck cancer) to hundreds of dental professionals. We’ve actually dug  deeper into a lot of research related to the two worlds (speech pathology/otolaryngology and the dental professions)… and we are even completing our own research study through this experience! Stay tuned!

The picture featured in this graphic was fun to make because it is made up of several of my favorite strobe findings over the years… and the funny thing is, I can remember every single patient. 

WHAT do you see? 

Hemorrhagic polyp, cyst, hemorrhage, Reinke’s edema, leukoplakia, papilloma, cancer, granuloma, subglottic stenosis, ectasias/varices/vascularizations, laryngitis, vocal fold nodules

WHY? Wellllll there are a variety of reasons any of these laryngeal pathologies could occur… But several of them are caused by vocal use patterns, inflammation, irritation, phonotrauma, etc. while others are possibly idiopathic or viral related…

HOW? The HOW is also kind of covered in the previous WHY, but the HOW of finding these out is always via laryngeal imaging, especially videostroboscopy. It’s so important if you have noticed a change in voice lasting longer than two weeks that you advocate for yourself (or others you know) to obtain videostroboscopy.

WHAT NEXT? Wellllll depending on exactly what’s going on there may be a plan that involves surgical, medical, and/or therapeutic treatment. In a perfect world, voice therapy is most likely always involved and is also very important prior to surgery (and afterwards!) in order to optimize healing/recovery. There’s a lot of research on it!

Jussssttttt some visual reminders to take some time today (and EVERY day!) to PRIORITIZE YOUR VOICE and stay tuned for our updates from the dental conference this weekend!!

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#voxfit #voice #speechpathologist #voicespecialist #speechpathology #otolaryngology #dentistry #lovemyjob #poweredbypassion #larynxlove #larynx #laryngealpathology #voicetherapy #phonomicrosurgery #research #dysphagia #upperairway #headandneckcancer #oralheadandneckcancer #wrde #dentist #collaboration #collaborativemodel #alwayslearning #alwaysgrowing #gratefulheart #prioritizeyourvoice

WRDE Conference Updates!....

WHAT AN AWESOME EXPERIENCE this past weekend at the Western Regional Dental Experience (WRDE) Conference!!!! This conference was HUGE and at such a beautiful hotel (the Renaissance Glendale (AZ)).. there were over 3000 providers in attendance. @scharns and I were asked to give a three hour talk all about speech pathology within the otolaryngology/laryngology setting, as well as the clinical pathway for a collaborative model involving dental providers and SLPs. Our presentation prep was a lot of work, but when we actually gave the talk, the time absolutely flew and it was so much fun presenting together and educating and collaborating with a lot of different dental-related providers!!! We are SO thankful to the @azdentalassociation for having us and also to Dr. Ed Feinberg, who was the one who asked us to be speakers.

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Our talk was entitled THE DENTAL PROVIDER’S ROLE IN ADVOCATING FOR PATIENTS WITH VOICE, UPPER AIRWAY, AND SWALLOWING DISORDERS. We covered a comprehensive amount of information including how the idea for this talk came about (which started with our local dystonia support group through Dysphonia International/@dysphonia_intl ), what an ENT-based speech language pathologist is and why this matters to dental providers, how dental providers and SLPs can collaborate, why this model makes sense, ALL about the LARYNX and VOCAL FOLDS folds, the respiratory system, the phonatory system, the resonatory system, the articulatory system, the importance of voice related diagnostics, videostroboscopy, how to rate and describe voices with several examples, types of voice disorders (organic/structural neurogenic, functional, etc. with lots of examples), information about surgical/medical/therapeutic-related treatments, ALL about airway-related disorders (including laryngeal hypersensitivity/cough, hypersensitivity syndrome/CHS, inducible laryngeal obstruction/ILO, exercise induced laryngal obstruction/EILO, the importance of case history, breathing pattern disorder/BPD, laryngospasm) and related diagnostics and therapeutic interventions, optimizing the laryngeal environment, swallowing disorders/dysphagia, related diagnostics and therapeutic interventions, ALL about VFSS and FEES, the normal oropharyngeal swallow, disordered swallowing, signs of dysphagia, oral/head/neck cancer and related side effects of treatment (immediate and late—including trismus, mucositis, xerostomia, lymphedema, radiation fibrosis, dysgeusia, velopharngeal dysfunction/VPD, periodontal disease, osteoradionecrosis, hearing loss, and hypoglossal neuropathy), laryngectomy patients, the research related to SLP + dental provider collaboration in the past, how dental providers are OCCUPATIONAL VOICE USERS (and several ways they can choose to prioritize their voice and general vocal health and efficiency), suggestions for building the SLP+ dental provider relationship/partnership, support groups that are available, local laryngology/otolaryngology and SLP teams, anddddd we even conducted a RESEARCH study during our talk and hope to tell you soon about those results. Stay tuned!!!

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Super GRATEFUL for our experience this weekend and OPPORTUNITIES like these that really focus on collaboration, communication, education, and outreach... with the mission of becoming better and MOST importantly, helping our patients.

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#voxfit #voice #wrde #dentist #dentalprovider #westernregionaldentalexperience #arizonadentalassociation #speechpathologist #voicespecialist #lovemyjob #poweredbypassion  #research #voicedisorders #upperairway #dysphagia #oralheadandneckcancer #education #collaboration #outreach #gratefulheart #outsidethebox #growthmindset

PYV: Anddd of course, always REMEMBER to PRIORITIZE YOUR VOICE! ... 

How are YOU prioritizing your voice today? And everyday? As an OCCUPATIONAL VOICE USER, it SHOULD be one of your top priorities! Psssttttt 4/16/24 is WORLD VOICE DAY!!!! What better reason to PRIORITIZE YOUR VOICE?! (STAY TUNED for the third annual WORLD VOICE DAY video!!)....

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What do you need to know to keep your voice healthy?  You should understand how the voice works, how to protect and care for your voice, and how to use your voice and entire vocal mechanism in the most efficient, effective, and dynamic ways possible.  
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I’m super PASSIONATE about this population of voice users (I’m one and most of you are too!), and am HERE TO HELP! Reach out with any questions, concerns, or if you’d like to work together. Email me at [email protected] or DM me on @voxfit_ ...