Puberphonia and Voice Therapy
During puberty, the male vocal apparatus undergoes dramatic changes. The larynx increases in size and the vocal cords become longer and vibrate at a lower frequency, causing the voice to 'break'. However, some males fail to replace their pre-pubescent, high-pitched voice with a lower-pitched 'adult' one, despite the occurrence of normal anatomical changes. This condition is called puberphonia.
Puberphonia is a voice disorder that is almost entirely psychological. It can be brought on by factors such as emotional shock, feelings of feminine attachment, embarrassment of voice breaking or the inability to let go of childhood and the acoustic output is often inappropriately high-pitched, breathy and hoarse.
Because voice is such a key component of social identity, puberphonia can have a detrimental effect on well-being and emotional health. Failure to display a deep, 'manly' voice can lead to assumptions of femininity and immaturity, as well as engendering difficulties in identifying the sex of the speaker, especially on the telephone.
Fortunately, it has been widely documented that voice therapy can help those with puberphonia undergo the acoustic transition of puberty on both emotional and physical levels. With regard to the former, it is important to counsel the patient to alleviate anxiety and fear whilst reinforcing the benefits of taking on a new voice. As for the latter, therapy techniques commonly involve using vegetative sounds to initiate voicing, applying external pressure to the vocal apparatus so patients can feel internal movements whilst speaking, producing loud plosive sounds, pitch exploration through humming and yawning techniques.
And according to some websites, it can take as little as a week to make the vocal transition and adapt to the changes of a new voice!
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