Investigação de efeitos imediatos de dois exercícios de trato vocal semi-ocluído**** Investigation of the immediate effects of two semi-ocluded vocal tract exercises

Background: the immediate effects of two semi-ocluded vocal tract exercises. Aim: to verify and compare the immediate effects of the finger kazoo (FK) and phonation with straw exercises (PS). Method: twenty-three women without vocal complaints, aged twenty-three to forty, performed the exercises twice, in a pre-set order (FK PS PS FK), and did a vocal self assessment after each one of these exercises. The sustained [e] vowel and speech (one-ten counting) samples were collected pre and postexercises for the auditory-perceptive evaluation carried out by two trained speech pathologists, and for the acoustic analysis. Results: in the self-assessment, the positive effects (FK 122 77.7% and PS 118 74.7%) were more referred than the negative, being mainly mentioned: a clearer (FK 33 21% and PS 29 18.4%), stronger voice (FK 24 15.3% and PS 26 16.5%) and an easier speech (FK 29 18.5% and PS 30 19%). In the auditory-perceptive evaluation, a larger number of emissions were considerated better after phonation with straw, as much in the vowel (22 47.8% post and 19 41.3% preexercise) as in the speech (24 52.2% post and 15 32.6% pre) whereas a larger number of emissions were considerate better before the finger kazoo, as much in the vowel (18 39.1% pre and 17 37% post) as in the speech (21 45.6% pre and 17 37% post). In the acoustic analysis, it was observed a fundamental frequency decrease after both exercises (FK 6.47Hz and PS 5.52Hz ). Conclusion: the finger kazoo and phonation with straw exercises produced positive and similar reports in the vocal self-assessment, and similar reports in the acoustic analysis, whereas the auditory-perceptive evaluation indicated positive effects only in the phonation with straw.