Vocal Warm-up and Respiratory Muscle Training

The voice handicap index (VHI) is a self-assessment questionnaire which quantifies the functional, physical and emotional impacts of a voice disorder on the quality of life. The VHI-10 is a reduced version and it consists of 10 questions about the severity of the voice problem perceived by the subject. It is presented as an ordinal scale (range 0-4) that indicates how frequently the subject has experienced the same situation (0 = never; 1 = almost never; 2 = sometimes; 3= almost always; 4 = always). Total VHI Score ranges from 0 (never) to 40 (always). Higher scores indicate greater voice handicap. Abnormal values > 11.

The measurement of fundamental frequency directly reflects the rate of vibration of the vocal folds. The fundamental frequency term refers to the frequency of more occurrence of vocal fold vibration, featuring a certain production.

Jitter is the perturbation cycle-to-cycle of the fundamental frequency. High levels of jitter are normally associated with pathological voice. The instability of the fundamental frequency can be attributed to changes in size, shape or firmness of the vocal folds.

Normal values must be < 0.6%.

The shimmer measures the amplitude's disturbance, e. g. how fast the amplitude changes on a sustained vowel for a few seconds. Shimmer high levels are normally associated with pathological voice. This can be attributed due to changes in size, shape or firmness of the vocal folds.

Normal values < 6.5%.

Noise is the analysis of aperiodic components of the sound's signal. It is an important correlate of that the human ear considers voice disorders. Normal levels < 2.5 dB

Glottal to Noise Excitation ratio (GNE) is an acoustic measurement to calculate the noise in a series of pulses produced by the oscillation of the vocal folds. This parameter is based on the hypothesis that resulting pulses of vocal fold collision generate a synchronous excitation of different frequency bands. Moreover, the noise produced by the vocal folds compressed generates uncorrelated excitations.

Normal levels > 0.5 dB

The voice handicap index (VHI) is a self-assessment questionnaire which quantifies the functional, physical and emotional impacts of a voice disorder on the quality of life. The VHI-10 is a reduced version and it consists of 10 questions about the severity of the voice problem perceived by the subject. It is presented as an ordinal scale (range 0-4) that indicates how frequently the subject has experienced the same situation (0 = never; 1 = almost never; 2 = sometimes; 3= almost always; 4 = always). Total VHI Score ranges from 0 (never) to 40 (always). Higher scores indicate greater voice handicap. Abnormal values > 11.

The measurement of fundamental frequency directly reflects the rate of vibration of the vocal folds. The fundamental frequency term refers to the frequency of more occurrence of vocal fold vibration, featuring a certain production.

Jitter is the perturbation cycle-to-cycle of the fundamental frequency. High levels of jitter are normally associated with pathological voice. The instability of the fundamental frequency can be attributed to changes in size, shape or firmness of the vocal folds.

Normal values must be < 0.6%.

The shimmer measures the amplitude's disturbance, e. g. how fast the amplitude changes on a sustained vowel for a few seconds. Shimmer high levels are normally associated with pathological voice. This can be attributed due to changes in size, shape or firmness of the vocal folds.

Normal values < 6.5%.

Noise is the analysis of aperiodic components of the sound's signal. It is an important correlate of that the human ear considers voice disorders. Normal levels < 2.5 dB

Glottal to Noise Excitation ratio (GNE) is an acoustic measurement to calculate the noise in a series of pulses produced by the oscillation of the vocal folds. This parameter is based on the hypothesis that resulting pulses of vocal fold collision generate a synchronous excitation of different frequency bands. Moreover, the noise produced by the vocal folds compressed generates uncorrelated excitations.

Normal levels > 0.5 dB

The voice handicap index (VHI) is a self-assessment questionnaire which quantifies the functional, physical and emotional impacts of a voice disorder on the quality of life. The VHI-10 is a reduced version and it consists of 10 questions about the severity of the voice problem perceived by the subject. It is presented as an ordinal scale (range 0-4) that indicates how frequently the subject has experienced the same situation (0 = never; 1 = almost never; 2 = sometimes; 3= almost always; 4 = always). Total VHI Score ranges from 0 (never) to 40 (always). Higher scores indicate greater voice handicap. Abnormal values > 11.

The measurement of fundamental frequency directly reflects the rate of vibration of the vocal folds. The fundamental frequency term refers to the frequency of more occurrence of vocal fold vibration, featuring a certain production.

Jitter is the perturbation cycle-to-cycle of the fundamental frequency. High levels of jitter are normally associated with pathological voice. The instability of the fundamental frequency can be attributed to changes in size, shape or firmness of the vocal folds.

Normal values must be < 0.6%.

Shimmer measures the amplitude perturbations, e. g. how fast the amplitude changes on a sustained vowel for a few seconds. Shimmer high levels are normally associated with pathological voice. This can be attributed due to changes in size, shape or firmness of the vocal folds. Normal values < 6.5%

Noise is the analysis of aperiodic components of the sound's signal. It is an important correlate of that the human ear considers voice disorders. Normal levels < 2.5 dB

Glottal to Noise Excitation ratio (GNE) is an acoustic measurement to calculate the noise in a series of pulses produced by the oscillation of the vocal folds. This parameter is based on the hypothesis that resulting pulses of vocal fold collision generate a synchronous excitation of different frequency bands. Moreover, the noise produced by the vocal folds compressed generates uncorrelated excitations.

Normal levels > 0.5 dB

The post-treatment questionnaire was based on the original designed by Roy (2003) for assessing the teachers' perception of voice improvement and compliance with the intervention. Participants rated their extent of improvement on a 3-point Likert scale ("not at all/somewhat"; "moderate"; "a lot"). The questionnaire was applied only after the intervention. The answers were dichotomized in two categories ("moderate/a lot" and "not at all/somewhat"). The results were presented in frequency/percentage of subjects that answered "moderate/a lot" in each intervention.

The post-treatment questionnaire was based on the original designed by Roy (2003) for assessing the teachers' perception of voice improvement and compliance with the intervention. Participants rated their extent of improvement on a 3-point Likert scale ("not at all/somewhat"; "moderate"; "a lot"). The questionnaire was applied only after the intervention. The answers were dichotomized in two categories ("moderate/a lot" and "not at all/somewhat"). The results were presented in frequency/percentage of subjects that answered "moderate/a lot" in each intervention.

The post-treatment questionnaire was based on the original designed by Roy (2003) for assessing the teachers' perception of voice improvement and compliance with the intervention. Participants rated their extent of improvement on a 3-point Likert scale ("not at all/somewhat"; "moderate"; "a lot"). The questionnaire was applied only after the intervention. The answers were dichotomized in two categories ("moderate/a lot" and "not at all/somewhat"). The results were presented in frequency/percentage of subjects that answered "moderate/a lot" in each intervention.

The post-treatment questionnaire was based on the original designed by Roy (2003) for assessing the teachers' perception of voice improvement and compliance with the intervention. Participants rated their degree of compliance on a 3-point Likert scale ("not at all/somewhat"; "moderate"; "a lot"). The questionnaire was applied only after the intervention. The answers were dichotomized in two categories ("moderate/a lot" and "not at all/somewhat"). It was considered compliance the answers "moderate" and "a lot" in comparison of "not at all/somewhat", considered as no compliance. The results were presented in frequency/percentage of subjects in each intervention.