How to: Keep Your Kids Sounding Their Best!
It is important to teach our kids the importance of taking care of our bodies, and our voice is no exception! Voice disorders are not just limited to adults, so it is crucial for children to be conscious of how to avoid vocal abuse and take care of their voices. With summer fun in full force and back to school approaching, it is important to be aware of causes and symptoms of vocal issues in addition to tips to practice healthy voicing.
Causes of Voice Issues:
Allergies, Large tonsils or adenoids, Illness (respiratory infections), Reflux Issues, Nodules and polyps on vocal cords, Poor voice habits and voice misuse.
If your child is experiencing any of these symptoms persistently, it is important to consult an ENT or Speech-Language Pathologist to identify a cause and treatment plan. To prevent a vocal misuse or problems caused by poor voice habits, encourage your child to practice good vocal hygiene with the following 7 tips:
1. Hydration:
Encourage your child to drink lots of water. Hydration is super important for our vocal cord to vibrate correctly and safely when we talk. Without hydration, our vocal cords do not function properly.
2. Say no to caffeine:
Limit your child’s caffeine intake. Caffeine naturally dehydrates our body, in addition to our vocal cords.
3. Quiet down!
Avoid yelling and screaming. In order for us to yell, our vocal chords crash into each other rapidly to produce our loud volume. This behavior can cause vocal cord damage and issues.
4. Give It a Rest:
Incorporate vocal rest into daily routine. It is important to allow our vocal cords and voice adequate rest time during the day. Whether that be an hour or so before bedtime, or quiet time in the afternoon, resting our voice throughout the day can prevent overuse.
5. A-hem! Avoid throat clearing:
Avoid excessive coughing and throat clearing: Just like yelling, coughing and throat clearing are produced by the vocal cords rapidly moving and crashing into each other. This movement can cause damage to our cords and voice. Consult an ENT if these behaviors are excessive to identify the cause.
6. Turn down the background noise:
Talk in quiet spaces and avoid areas with loud background noises. This will encourage your child to not yell or feel the need to talk over background noise. Avoiding these areas will help your child not strain their vocal muscles to speak.
7. Relax those muscles:
Practice muscle relaxation techniques. If you notice your child exhibiting strained behaviors in the neck and facial areas, encourage them to practice relaxing their face and neck muscles during down time and incorporate during speaking activities.
Katie Sinclair, M.A., CCC-SLP
[author title=”About the Author”]