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.