Voice Disorders: The Scent Modification (AM) Method

For this assignment I decided to review voice therapy. Specifically, I chose to look into the accent modification (AM) method. It is a holistic approach to treating voice disorders as it tackles collectively and simultaneously several parameters of the voice (Kotby & Felix, 1998). The AM method has been used to help treat stuttering, to help improve breath control leading to better rhythm and phrasing, correcting articulation, vocal nodules, dysphonia and several other voice disorders. This method relies on three strategies. The first being optimal abdomino-diaphragmatic breath support, the second is rhythmic play of accentuated relaxed vowels with progressive carry over to connected speech, and the third is dynamic rhythmic body and arm movements. These things automatically separate into three phases used in the treatment: 1)
One of the major ones used is modeling. For instance, during the phonatory exercises the clinician models the optimal vocal behavior for the patient to follow. Also, drum beats, tapping of the table, hand clapping or foot stomping are utilized so that the patient can hear and follow the rhythms at different stages to help with the rhythmic intonations of speech. The second behavioral method, I believe is included, is the reward principle. This was done by playing back the voice with video or audio recordings to help demonstrate to the patient which vocal behaviors should be reinforced. The recordings capture the improvement of vocal progress which is a reward as it indicates to the patient that he or she is making progress (Kotby & Felix, 1998). I didn't note any other behavioral methods, but I suppose cueing could come into play. The therapist could cue when the patient for correct breathing patterns, or if the patient is consistently misusing his or her voice, there could be cues as to when to stop the