Do you always speak with a heavy nasal voice? Learn about hypernasality in nasal resonance disorder

People always say that I have a heavy nasal voice and my speech is muffled and unclear? For this situation, we can use hypernasal to describe it. Hypernasal means that the air overflows from the nasal cavity, causing excessive resonance in the nasal cavity, while the oral cavity resonance decreases, resulting in abnormal pronunciation, such as /a/ being pronounced as /ang/, which is a type of nasal resonance disorder.

So what is the resonance mentioned many times before?

Resonance refers to the phenomenon that when the sound waves generated by the vibration of an object enter a suitable space, resonance occurs, and under its influence, the original sound becomes louder and more pleasant. This space that matches the vibration of the sound waves is the resonance chamber. Take musical instruments as an example. When an electric guitar without a resonance chamber is played directly, there is only the sound of the vibrating strings, so it must be connected to a power source through a pickup and amplification of the sound. The wooden guitar has a large empty box as a resonance chamber, which is loud enough to be played directly.

The same is true for human voice. The resonance cavity of the human body is composed of pharyngeal cavity, oral cavity, nasal cavity, laryngeal cavity and other cavities. During the dynamic changes of these cavities, the resonance effect of our voice will also change. If there is a problem with the resonance of the two important cavities of the oral cavity or nasal cavity during the pronunciation process, that is, there is a resonance disorder, which has a great impact on the clarity of our articulation.

After understanding resonance, it is easy to understand why excessive resonance in the nasal cavity will cause hypernasal sound. For such patients, first of all, organic lesions of the articulatory organs should be excluded through examination, and then the soft palate movement and nasal leakage should be observed. The soft palate is like a door. When it is opened, the nasal cavity and the oropharyngeal cavity are connected, and the breath and sound wave energy can enter the nasal cavity to resonate and produce nasal sounds. When the soft palate moves upward and backward and contacts the pharyngeal wall, the valve leading to the nasal cavity is closed, and the breath and sound wave energy can only leave through the mouth, producing non-nasal sounds. Hypernasal sound can be caused by the restriction of the lifting of the soft palate, or the inability to flexibly switch the lifting and lowering of the soft palate. Therefore, patients with hypernasal sound should focus on exercising the soft palate movement function and master the opening and closing of this door. The following methods can enhance the soft palate movement ability and help reduce nasal sound.

Guided airflow method: Simply put, it is to blow air with your mouth, guide the airflow through the mouth, and reduce the amount of air entering the nasal cavity. We can practice this by blowing candles, bubbles, balls, paper strips, and so on.

Push-up method: The patient supports his hands on a chair, table or wall, inhales and holds his breath, and shouts "ah" loudly while pushing hard, which can promote the ability of the soft palate to contract and lift.

Tongue root sounds: Pronouncing tongue root sounds such as /ga/ and /ka/ can increase the strength of the soft palate muscles and promote velopharyngeal closure.

The popular science content of this platform has been funded by the China Association for Science and Technology's Science Popularization Department's 2022 National Science Literacy Action Project "National Society Science Popularization Capacity Improvement Project-Rehabilitation Science Popularization Service Capacity Improvement Action Plan"