What causes kids to have raspy voices?

Speech-Language Pathologist Barbara Schacter, LCSW, shares advice for parents on the causes of a raspy voice in kids and what they can do to help treat it
Causes And Treatments for a Child's Raspy Voice
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What causes kids to have raspy voices?

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If a child has a raspy voice, it is a cause for concern because it's an indicator that there is vocal abuse going on. Vocal abuse is a lot of throat clearing, screaming on the play yard, fighting between siblings; it's a problem. It causes something called vocal nodules, which are little callouses that develop on the vocal folds. Those little nodules are bilateral and they keep the vocal folds from approximating each other. It's necessary for the vocal folds to approximate each other to have a clear voice. So if the child doesn't receive some vocal hygiene and the child doesn't learn how to take care of their voice properly, the vocal nodules will increase in size indicating a possible surgery. If they don't get some help, they will have no voice at all. They will open their mouth, and no voice, at all, will come out.

Speech-Language Pathologist Barbara Schacter, LCSW, shares advice for parents on the causes of a raspy voice in kids and what they can do to help treat it

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Barbara Schacter, LCSW

Speech-Language Pathologist

Barbara was raised in New England, then attended The George Washington University for both undergraduate and graduate school.  She began as a dance major, but soon realized that she might have had a colorful, but short career and she was looking for a profession that would inspire and challenge her for many years.  As luck would have it, G.W.U. had an excellent speech pathology and audiology department. After receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree, the university offered her a fellowship for graduate school with an internship associated with not only their speech and hearing clinic, but with the George Washington University Hospital, as well. 

After graduate school, she secured a position in a private school for children with language and learning disabilities.  She followed that with a 10-year stint at a residential children's psychiatric center.  Longing to work with a more varied population, she then worked in a public school in New Jersey.  There, she developed and taught a language enrichment program for all kindergartners in the district and provided speech and language therapy for the two special education classes, as well as serving those students from kindergarten to sixth grade having articulation, fluency, voice, cleft palate, hearing impairment and language delays.  In 1992, she moved to Los Angeles and was hired by Saint John's Health Center to participate as a member on their cleft palate team as well as providing pediatric and geriatric out-patient speech and language services.  Several years later, she opened a private practice in Pacific Palisades, CA, which continues to this day.  She is delighted to say that she still gets a thrill out of the work she does...and that is such a gift!

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