IS YOUR BOY ' S VOICE " CHANGING " ?

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M'
E. Thayer Curry.Associate Professor of Speech, University of IllirLols.
If your boy's voice is changing, he is undergoing a transition which is experienced by nearly every adolescent boy. 1 For some boys this change results in but few problems.Other adolescents are confronted by speech and psychological difficulties which seem insurmountable to them.at the moment.Parents would be better able to understand and guide their boys during this period if they were familiar with recent scientific information about the nature of voice change.Probably the individual most concerned with this matter of voice change is the teen-ager himself.Parents and teachers may be asked to help the boy whose voice is "breaking".Curious as it may seem, growing interest in this characteristic peculiar to adolescence has been shown by research workers in the fields of medicine, psychology, anthropology, music and speech.
There are at least three specific questions which vex parents and teachers about this phenomenon, We will make it the purpose of this brief article to point out what has been learned by the investigators with regard to these three questions: First.How do we recognize voice change?Second.When can we expect this, change to commence?Third.What are the reasons for this change?.
Then for the parent who would be prepared to meet this problem wisely, we will suggest very briefly how this change may be handled psychologically.
How do we recognize voice change?.The onset of voice change is evident to parents and teachers (particularly instructors of speech and music) because of the wide deviations from the normal voice pattern.These deviations have been categorized and analyzed by investigators in speech and music.Most of these observers were impressed first by the loss of vocal control, and second, by the general instability of the voice undergoing change.

Note.
Some small number of boys will have achieved voice change before adolescence.A few others do not have change of voice until after maturity.In fact, some voices never do achieve this change.
Jerome, an investigator using both acoustic and anthropometric techniques, gives us a very picturesque and accurate description of these deviations: "Change of voice may be technically described as a normal loss of control of voice, occupying an undetermined length of time in the preadolescent stage or during some period of adolescence.
The loss of control is usually evidenced by instantaneous, unpredicted, and involuntary changes of pitch, the reasons for which are not readily apparent.Occasional concomitants of this loss of control of the voice are double resonance, restricted range of pitch, and the appearance of a tremolo".2 Other speech authorities have reported further that during 'this time the voice may become raucous, hoarse and tend to "break into falsetto notes higher than those which were > normal before the change of voice commenced.
Professor Grant Fairbanks at the University of Southern California has been responsible for extensive studies in the determination of vocal pitch.He and his graduate studentl have learned many fascinating things about the voice of the adolescent male Dr C.P. " Pe drey has also contributed University?
hiS studieB at Louisiana State h^+ffif 1 ? 10a ^tical technleuee developed and utilized SL η investigators have contributed much to our present ftJdS™nr Se + h f vo i c t chan Se.One of the most indicia p™^}??VL theSe studies has *een that when voice change is be?Se ?hp th S V °iCe be about an octave than ?wis el°! ^change.
Many investigators have verified this extent of lowering of the voice level.
thatT?^2• th ® se characteristics of voice change we can say that the voice is husky before change, unstable during change is likely to take place with our teen-ager -we would like to know when this change can be expected to occur?When may ^ this change to common*?. blL e wfl« i ?S t + r 2 port v d • Work generally recognized on this proreported ihai 5 y -h Paul S en ' German > ^ 1887.Paulsen a t age 11 φ^ ° t0yS tegan t0 ex Perience voice change that fifti of +1 m ?re ?ecent work of Pedrey has indicated change ί^ϊ?? ±n + hi * Bt ^ at 13 had begun the nge.
in addition to the views of Paulsen and Pedrey, 2.
many other investigators have reported a wide range of ages when the voice change may be expected to commence.Even this work has indicated that this relatively restricted anthropometric measure gives a rather wide range for the time of onset of voice change.
All of these objective studies indicate that there is no narrow range of age during which the voice change can be expected to commence.The very large range in chronological age is probably due to the variation in skeletal age for a group of a given chronological age.Our best information would indicate that the average time for change is near or slightly less than 14 years of chronological age.
What are the reasons for this change?.
Rapid growth changes in the larynx at about the time of voice change most likely explain the sudden change of voice level.This rapid growth, approximately at the time of puberty, represents the culmination of a long period of development in the organ of voice.
Before puberty, the voices of boys and girls are rather similar.The larynx has grown rapidly in both sexes until the age of six.At this age growth of the larynx nearly stops and the vocal bands neither lengthen nor thicken appreciably until the time of change of voice about eight years later.
Near puberty the vocal bands enlarge in mass and increase in length.Investigations indicate that the vocal bands in the "boy double their length; those of the girl meanwhile increase about kCfi in length.All the growth apparently takes place in a limited period of time.This sudden enlargement in the larynx usually means that for a period the boy is unable to consciously manipulate the more massive voice muscles upon which his control of pitch depends.The result is, therefore, that while the voice is being lowered an octave in pitch level -pitch control is greatly lessened.
The "voice break", so characteristic" of this period, has been defined by one writer as a "sudden and uncontrollable rise or fall from the characteristic pitch of the individuala rise or fall which is definite enough to be heard by a Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2012)  at this age come from the whole pattern of rapid growth and rapid change of the whole personality rather than the change of his voice alone.At any rate the study of Pedrey on this phase of the problem has indicated that the embarrassment experienced is strictly limited.4 The knowing parent will be able to prepare the adolescent beforehand about the change which will one day arrive.He can explain that the boy might reasonably expect some*sign of the change as early as twelve years -but that most likelv it will not occur until slightly before the age of fourteen This change will last for an indefinite period -perhaps six months to a year.During this time of change the voice will probably show considerable instability.
Voice control will not always be predictable.However the boy may be assured with certainty that this is simply a natural normal change which he is experiencing -and that in a short while his voice will be significantly lower in pitch.Even after the voice has assumed the lower pitch level -and the change has apparently been completed -some brief recurrences of the instability and breaks may occasionally evidence themselves.It can be further explained that most of these changes are die to the rapid growth changes taking place within the § lary^ Itlelf.
These wide differences are perhaps due to the deviations in standards among different workers used in defining exactly what is meant by voice change.