Can Straw Phonation Be Considered As Vocal Warm Up Among Speech Language Pathologists?

Abstract

Straw phonation exercises have been proved to be effective in improving voice quality among persons with voice pathology. The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of straw phonation as a warm-up exercise on maximum phonation duration, acoustic, and perceptual parameters of voice among Speech Language Pathologists. The study adopted a pretest-posttest design. Twenty-five females with the mean age range of 20.87 ± 1.15 years participated in the study and completed a series of straw phonation exercises for three cycles. Maximum phonation duration, acoustic, and self-perceptual measures were assessed before and after the straw phonation exercises. F0, jitter, shimmer, nose to harmonic ratio, intensity, F1, F2, F3, F4, Maximum phonation duration, and the post self-perceptual measures were analyzed. The results indicated a significant improvement in the F0, intensity, F1, F2, F4, Maximum phonation duration, and self-perceptual measures. Straw phonation exercises provides an easy and effective warm up technique to improve the voice quality among Speech Language Pathologists and can be considered before conducting therapy sessions.