EFFICACY OF THE ACCENT METHOD OF VOICE THERAPY

There is an increasing need for studies of efficacy of behavior readju stment therapy procedures in human communicative disorders. Legal, soc ial, scientific and professional considerations point up the need for more careful documentation of the effects of treatment techniques used by phoniatricians and speech-language pathologists. This study is con ducted in order to evaluate the efficacy of the accent method of voice therapy (AM). The AM is one of the holistic approaches for behavior r eadjustment voice therapy. It tackles collectively and simultaneously the various parameters of voice such as pitch, loudness and timbre. Th e results of intervention utilizing the AM in this clinical trial are assessed in a relatively controlled setup. Patients with voice problem s resulting from various etiologic vocal pathologies are distributed r andomly into two groups. Group 1 (G1) is given the full aspect of the AM, that is, voice hygiene advice plus the accent exercises to correct the faulty vocal technique (habit). Group 2 (G2) receives only voice hygiene advice. The AM is administered in individual sessions 20 min e ach, twice a week, while the voice hygiene advice counseling is given once a week. The assessment of the vocal pathology is done following a diagnostic protocol utilizing subjective as well as quasi-objective m easures of evaluation. The initial assessment presents the baseline (p retest) data for both groups. The follow-up evaluations are done at mi d intervention (mid-test), that is, 10 sessions for G1 and 5 sessions for G2, and at the termination of intervention/therapy (post-test). Th e difference in improvement between G1 and G2 at the end of the observ ation was generally significant in favor of G1. There were significant improvements in G1 in certain items specific for the various etiologi c categories. The improvement from pretest to mid-test to post-test va lues followed a linear tendency. The significance of the results is di scussed and the conclusions are outlined and criticized.