World Voice Day, April 16, is an annual event celebrated around the world that is dedicated to educating the public on the importance of vocal health. Many are unaware that the vocal folds are very soft and delicate tissue that can be overworked or damaged similar to other soft tissue in our body! For most people, the voice serves as the primary method of communication, without it, conversing with others becomes fatiguing or even painful.
Voice disorders can have one or many causes. Certain diseases can be devastating to the laryngeal area but other causes can include lifestyle concerns such as high stress, smoking or talking excessively. Voice disorders are surprisingly common, especially in singers and teachers. Over 90% of singers report experiencing vocal fatigue (Timmermans, Vanderwegen& De Bodt, 2005). Over time, using your voice in a fatigued state can lead to a more serious pathology. Among teachers, approximately 50% report experiencing voice problems (Boyo, Glaceran, Petrucelli, & Hatzopoulous, 2007). However, voice problems do not occur exclusively in singers and teachers, rates are higher in any profession requiring intensive and prolonged use of the voice such as lawyers, coaches, and salespeople.
On April 1st and 2nd 2015, the first ever McGill celebration of World Voice Day was spearheaded by a committee of 2nd year students: Larissa Der, Cassandra Groot, Susan Janzen, & Ioannis Yotakis, under the supervision of Professor Nicole Li. With the support of other 2nd year classmates, the event focused on raising awareness about voice care, especially for those who are at high risk for voice disorders.
The event included two days of free voice screenings, an information booth and a 1.5 hour voice workshop hosted in the McGill Education Building and the McGill Strathcona Music Building. The voice screenings used both perceptual and physiological measures. Perceptual ratings of breathiness, roughness, weakness, and strain were used to evaluate the quality of the voice. This subjective measure allowed the student clinicians to determine what instrumental measures would be most useful in the assessment, which they then gathered with voice analysis computer programs. Such acoustic measures included jitter and shimmer (unwanted changes in loudness and pitch), normal speaking pitch and loudness, and the noise to harmonics ratio, which were compared to a set of age appropriate norms.. In combination with the client’s reported concerns, the students judged whether the screen was a pass or fail. Clients who failed the screening were provided with a referral to an ENT doctor at the Montreal General Hospital for a full voice assessment. Of the 62 people screened, 18 were referred for further assessment. The screening event attracted many people from a variety of disciplines, including staff and students from Faculties of Music, Law, Nursing, Library Science, Psychology, Linguistics, Economics, and Physiotherapy.
Participants attended the screenings for different reasons. Some were curious about the role of Speech-Language Pathologists in voice and others had genuine concern for the health of their voice. Michael Destounis, a Physiology student at McGill and member of the McGill University Chorus, was motivated by his interest in public speaking. When asked to reflect on the screening, he replied, “I enjoyed learning about the different aspects involved in speaking (and) how to breathe properly”. In contrast, Jared Levin, a voice student at McGill was concerned with vocal fatigue and had his voice screened to gain “a new perspective from the medical side”.
The workshop portion of the event focused on the role of Speech-Language Pathologists with clients that sing professionally. Workshop leaders Johnny Yotakis and Susan Janzen educated the participants on the physiology of laryngeal muscles in the vocal apparatus and how vocal function exercises can improve not only the disordered voice, but the healthy voice as well. During this interactive and engaging workshop, participants had the chance to practice various voice exercises, which focused on strengthening and balancing the vocal folds and their surrounding connective tissue. Though the workshop’s target audience was singers, both teachers and Speech-Language Pathologists were in attendance.
The student driven screenings led to the event finale, a multidisciplinary research seminar, organized and hosted by Dr. Li. Held on April 17 in the Schulich Music building, the event was sold out with 94 people in the audience. The program included a panel review of a voice-disordered client including perspectives of an ENT doctor (Dr. Karen Kost), an S-LP (Glenna Waters), and a professor of music (Stefano Algeiri). Also, the most recent voice research updates were provided by compliments of McGill Professors Isabelle Cossette, Vincent Gracco, Luc Mongeau and Dr. Li. To round off the program, demonstrations of rare singing techniques around the world were delivered by two music students, Neva Lyn-Kew and Tracy Smith-Bessette.
The four committee members were ecstatic with the interest from the public and were proud to have started this event at McGill. “I am thrilled that I was able to contribute to such a successful World Voice Day in Montreal”, says Cassandra Groot. She expanded that “a lot of work, dedication and passion was put into the event by [her] colleagues and it was incredible to see all of the support from the faculty and students at SCSD”. Susan Janzen shared her sentiments and also felt “it was a valuable learning experience” all while being able to “provide a service to the community”. The committee members hope that this World Voice Day celebration will become an annual event for SCSD.
For more information about Voice Day 2015, please visit the website at https://www.mcgill.ca/scsd/world-voice-day-2015.
Bovo, R., Galceran, M., Petruccelli, J., & Hatzopoulos, S. (2007). Vocal problems among teachers: evaluation of a preventive voice program. Journal of Voice, 21(6), 705-722.
Timmermans, B., Vanderwegen, J., & De Bodt, M. S. (2005). Outcome of vocal hygiene in singers. Current opinion in otolaryngology & head and neck surgery, 13(3), 138-142.
