Logo UAB
2023/2024

Voice Education and Health

Code: 101726 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500893 Speech therapy OT 4 2

Contact

Name:
Josefa Martin Galan
Email:
josefa.martin@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject. Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2023.


Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites.


Objectives and Contextualisation

At the end of this course students will be able to:

  • Be fully aware of the importance of the body attitude and the respiration to achieve a good phonation.

 

  • Take consciousness of their own vocal tract and its vocal and expressive possibilities.

 

  • Know basic corporal, respiratory and vocal resources for a good voice emission.

 

  • Know how to find the proper use of the elements that determine the quality and efficiency of the vocal emission: the timbre, the intonation, the intensity, the expressiveness, the articulation and the projection.

 

  • Experiment their own communicative capacities individually and in group in order to develop habits of self-observation and observation of others as indispensable tools of the re-education process.

 

  • Know and experience vocal re-education exercises to overcome vocal disorders.

Competences

  • Analyse and synthesise information.
  • Design and carry out speech-therapy treatment, whether individual or at group level, establishing objectives and phases, with more efficient and suitable methods, techniques and resources, attending to the distinct developmental phases of human beings.
  • Design, implement and evaluate actions aimed at preventing communication and language disorders.
  • Ethically commit oneself to quality of performance.
  • Have a strategic and flexible attitude to learning.
  • Integrate the foundations of biology (anatomy and physiology), psychology (evolutionary processes and development), language and teaching as these relate to speech-therapy intervention in communication, language, speech, hearing, voice and non-verbal oral functions.
  • Observe and listen actively throughout the various processes of speech therapy intervention.
  • Present adequate speech production, language structure and voice quality.
  • Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  • Understand, integrate and relate new knowledge deriving from autonomous learning.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analyse and synthesise.
  2. Analyse postural and respiratory elements in others and their relationship with the quality of voice emitted, as well as potential risk factors in voice disorders.
  3. Appropriate use of the elements that determine the quality and efficiency in the utterance: the timbre, intonation, intensity, expressiveness, articulation, projection.
  4. Describe and experience vocal reeducation exercises to solve vocal disorders.
  5. Describe the biological basis (anatomy and physiology) of speech therapy intervention in voice disorders, with special emphasis on posture and breathing elements.
  6. Describe the influence of personal experience in voice and body language in order to create a flexible and effective speech therapy task.
  7. Ethically commit oneself to quality of performance.
  8. Explain the importance of body stance and breathing in good phonation.
  9. Explain the importance of the body, its energy dynamics and body stance as essential elements in good phonation and communication.
  10. Have a strategic and flexible attitude to learning.
  11. Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
  12. Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  13. Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  14. Understand, integrate and relate new knowledge deriving from autonomous learning.
  15. Use basic body, breathing and vocal resources for a good issuance of voice and teach those resources to others in order to prevent the occurrence of voice disorders caused by bad habits.

Content

 

1.     The voice and the human communication:

a)    The body, vocal instrument.

b)    Vocal tract.

c)    Speech therapy exploration of the voice: vocal balance and phonatory habit.

  1. Body Attitude:

a)    Awareness of the own body attitude (tensions, blockages…)

b)    Observation of body posture and verticality.

c)    Basic techniques of relaxation.

d)    Exercises to correct the body attitude: feet, knees, pelvis, cervical and lumbar hyperlordosis, body axis, images.

  1. Respiration

a)    Physiological and spontaneous respiration product of a good body attitude.

b)    Observation of the type of breathing: clavicular, abdominal, intercostal and costo-diaphragmatic.

c)    Alterations in breathing pattern: diaphragmatic blockage.

d)    Exercises to improve respiratory dynamics: diaphragmatic release and phono-respiratory coordination.

  1. Phonation

a)    Speech organs

b)    Laryngeal mechanisms: Mechanism I and Mechanism II

c)    Resonances

d)    Sound amplification

e)    Expression, intensity, timbre and articulation

  1. Vocal care resources

Methodology

 

• Courses are eminently practical. Different body, respiratory and vocal exercises will be proposed, and they will be worked individually or in groups. It is highly recommended to wear comfortable clothes. 
• Tutoring to support the realization of the students’ work, where their body and vocal evolution will be assessed. 
• Due to the practical nature of this course, regular attendance is indispensable. 80% attendance will be required in order to be able to opt for the evaluation of the contents worked. 
 
 

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Individual theory and practice of corporal and vocal exercises 36 1.44 1, 14, 4, 10, 15
Type: Supervised      
Tutorials to support personal work 14 0.56
Type: Autonomous      
Journal of reflection on resonators and bucco-organs 40 1.6 1, 14, 7, 4, 10, 3
Reflection journals on body attitude and breathing 40 1.6 2, 1, 14, 7, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 15

Assessment

Competences in this subject will be assessed through:
										
											
										
											EV1 and EV2. Oral presentations evaluating the evolution of the student's phonetic habit. The student will make an initial and final video recording to be able to make this comparison of habits (40% and 40%).
										
											EV3. Taking a written test (20%)
										
											All tests are individual. 

In order to pass the subject, you must achieve an overall course grade of 5 or more points (scale 0-10). It is essential to pass all the sections proposed in the evaluation.

Single Evaluation
All evaluable evidence will be carried out in a single session. They will take place on the day of the written exam (EV3). 
 It should be borne in mind that the single assessment does NOT imply that the student does not attend class, nor that he does not have to follow the course schedule. 
The same process as the continuous assessment will be applied to recovery.

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
EV1. Oral presentation: body evolution_Second evaluation period (2nd semester) 40% 8 0.32 2, 1, 14, 7, 5, 4, 6, 8, 9, 13, 12, 11, 10, 3, 15
EV2. Oral presentation: vocal evolution_Second evaluation period (2nd semester) 40% 8 0.32 2, 1, 14, 7, 5, 4, 6, 8, 9, 13, 12, 11, 10, 3, 15
EV3. Written test_Second period 20% 4 0.16 2, 1, 14, 7, 5, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, 11, 10

Bibliography

Consult catalan teaching guide


Software

N/A