Summary
Purpose
Stimulability assessment is a common part of the voice evaluation, but little information
exists about what is involved in the process, how it is measured, and how it impacts
therapeutic decisions. The aim of this study was to establish the frequency, circumstances,
techniques, and rationale for stimulability assessment among voice-specialized speech-language
pathologists (SLPs).
Method
An anonymized online survey was distributed to voice-specialized SLPs through email
lists, online communities, and professional networks. Surveys queried clinical demographic
information, respondents’ definition of stimulability, importance of stimulability
assessment, frequency with which stimulability assessment is performed for various
patient populations, preferred facilitating techniques, importance of stimulability
assessment for a variety of clinical goals, and methods of measuring voice stimulability.
Results
Eighty-eight responses were analyzed. All respondents perform voice stimulability
assessment, with 97% considering the practice important. Stimulability assessment
is completed with all voice disorders and is consistently completed with muscle tension
dysphonia, phonotraumatic disorders, vocal fold mobility disorders, and presbyphonia.
Ninety-one percent of the sample does not use a structured stimulability assessment
protocol. All respondents felt that stimulability is, to some degree, predictive of
successful voice therapy outcomes. Resonance modifications and semi-occluded vocal
tract techniques were the most commonly used facilitating strategies. Respondents
felt that stimulability assessment was very important for assessing patient awareness,
estimating prognosis, and identifying training gestures.
Conclusions
Responding voice clinicians felt that stimulability assessment is an important part
of the voice evaluation. This study provides information on how stimulability assessment
is being used and outlines what is needed to study its impact.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 28, 2023
Accepted:
January 6,
2023
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofFootnotes
Portions of this work were presented at The Fall Voice Conference in San Francisco, CA, October 7-8, 2022.
Identification
Copyright
© 2023 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
