This manual is aimed at voice professionals, speech therapist and voice specialists, in order to facilitate the treatment of vocal disorders. It consists of a series of exercises designed to be applied directly in each of the sessions, both for hypotonia and for hypertonia or functional dysphonia.
Since the aim of vocal treatment is to ensure that the patient is able to produce voice using the maximum of his qualities and with the minimum effort, it is important to make him aware of the need to put into practice what has been exercised in the sessions, in order to generalize, integrate and automate the acquisitions. Therefore, these same exercises are recommended as suitable material for the patient to work on at home in parallel to the treatment and to favor the achievement of a good vocal habit. Experience has shown us that if the patient is able to grasp how the sound is produced and which organs are involved in it, he/she becomes more involved in performing the exercises and progresses more quickly. That is why we recommend that the therapist explain in simple words the process of voice production: how the vocal cords are, where the sound has to pass through, why costo-abdominal breathing is beneficial, etc.
In the case of dysphonia due to vocal hypertonia, in addition to the segmental relaxation proposed in this manual (neck, shoulders, tongue, jaw and soft palate), we also recommend the use of generalized relaxation. The order of execution of the exercises is not random but follows a series of phases successively elaborated in increasing difficulty, although the sequence of application may vary at the therapist's discretion, depending on the patient's needs.
