What is voice?
Reviewed by Anna Volkmer

Voice is an area of clinical practice in speech and language therapy where there remains much debate, not only around the aetiology and classifications of voice disorders, but around the treatment of them. In general, it is accepted that ‘voice disorders’ describe a group of people who have difficulties with voice function, meaning their voice may fatigue, or they may be perceived as having a voice impairment. This may have an organic cause, or a functional or psychogenic cause. Additionally, there are others who report that their voice may not be considered to fit with their age or identified gender. This study used a conceptual approach to consider voice as currently understood in the clinical voice literature, using a subtype of purposeful sampling to collect exemplars of the concept from the literature. The authors focused on selected textbooks and journal articles published after the year 2000. Concepts were agreed by both authors to produce an account of voice as a product of respiration, phonation and resonance, an auditory perceived sound and a communicator of speaker socio-cultural positioning. These have been influenced by different theoretical perspectives and the authors conclude that the biocultural assemblage view of voice production is best suited to inform our transdisciplinary approach to clinical practice. In short, we must consider all these domains to best meet the needs of the people we are working with.

Who or what has the capacity to influence voice production? Development of a transdisciplinary theoretical approach to clinical practice addressing voice and the communication of speaker socio-cultural positioning.
Azul D, Hancock AB.
INT J SPEECH LANG PATHOL
2020;22(5)559-70.