Dysphonia as a Speech Disorder

Abstract

Oral communication is one of the most important forms of communication. It is through which the speaker directly delivers the content of the verbal message to the addressee. Usually, the existence of any defect or disorder in the speaker’s vocal cords may result in not delivering the message properly. One of the problems that cause such improper delivery of a verbal message is voice disorders, especially voice hoarseness (Dysphonia). Thus, this paper is entitled (Dysphonia as a Speech Disorder), which refers to the changes occurring in the speaker’s voice that are marked as disorders compared to the normal patterns.  Such disorder occurs due to a defect in the elements needed for the process of voice production in a healthy person. This disorder is not confined to a specific age group. It can occur at any age, from childhood onwards, and it may be a temporary or chronic disorder. Speech disorders and their treatment methods are often approached in the domain of applied linguistics, and dysphonia is one of those voice disorders that have not received ample attention from researchers in general, and speech pathologists in particular, despite the steady increase in the number of cases day after day due to several factors including the noise pollution and crowdedness in cities, and some everyday duties that cause injury, which then can be an effective factor for this disorder to occur. Hence, this study is determined to introduce the most important modern trends in rehabilitating voice disorders and presenting methods for curing them.