A person’s voice is as unique as their fingerprint. It makes us human. It signals intent, personality, emotion, location and even health. The factors that influence one’s voice include gender, body, muscle use and control, respiration, hearing and other physiological functioning, dialect, dentition, health, mobility, environment and more.
People with anatomical and physiological differences are more likely to have different than expected abilities when speaking and being understood. Diagnosis such as hearing loss or deafness, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, musculoskeletal conditions, dysarthria, pulmonary conditions, etc. may have voice characteristics that affect pitch, rate, loudness, resonance and prosody. Our goal at Grays Peak is to allow others to listen to WHAT you say, not HOW you say it.
In addition to the perceptual characteristics of voice and vocal disabilities, maladaptive speech and language behaviors often develop over time. These may include:
- Repetition of words and phrases
- Overreliance on carrier/ phrases or words
- Inappropriate and incorrect answers to questions (yes/no, repetition of others’ utterances, answers used in the past that don’t match the question asked, etc.).
- Use of empty phrases in social situations that don’t require attention or internal generation of thought or contribution to the social setting.
• Difficulties with conversational speech due to difficulties with short-term verbal memory and topic maintenance. - Inability to empathize with communication partners through reciprocal conversational strategies.