The impact of vocal warm-up exercises on the objective vocal quality in female students training to be speech language pathologists

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of a specific vocal warm-up (WU) program - focused on the improvement of the dynamics of the extrinsic and intrinsic laryngeal muscles - on the objective vocal quality in Dutch female students who are getting trained to be speech language pathologists (SLPs). Hypothetically, one can assume that the objective vocal quality will increase after vocal WU exercises in SLPs in comparison with the matched control group that receives no WU program. Methods: This was a pretest-posttest control group design study, in which 45 female future SLPs were randomly assigned into two groups. The experimental group received a well-defined vocal WU program, whereas the control group took 30 minutes of vocal rest. Objective assessment techniques (aerodynamic, vocal range, acoustic measurements, and Dysphonia Severity Index [DSI]) were used. Results: After vocal WU, a significant increased DSI value, increased vocal performance (with lower intensity and higher frequency), and increased fundamental frequency (F0) were measured. Conclusions: Clinically, there is clear evidence that warming up the vocal mechanism is beneficial to the objective vocal quality and the vocal performance in future SLPs. To what extent the repetition of these vocal WU exercises has the possibility to maintain increased objective vocal quality in these future professional voice users is subject to further research. © 2011 The Voice Foundation.