D. Questions and Answers for New Students
What sorts of questions might new students be expected to raise?
Such questions usually range from problems in everyday life to sequelae related to surgical procedures or difficulties regarding esophageal speech instruction. A few questions and answers follow.
Q-1 Does the aperture of the tracheostoma affect voice quality?
A-1 The size of the aperture has nothing to do with voice quality.
The apertures of tracheostomas come in different sizes, from large to small and medium.
In an early stage of esophageal speech practice, you may attempt to take as much air into the chest as possible and practice producing "a" because of past vocalization habits . Since you will not produce a sound, you attempt to force the issue and, as a consequence, air enters and exits violently from the lungs. Too much of this sort may cause the hyperventilation syndrome discussed in the text.
If this is the case, those who have a large tracheostoma are prone to become tired and are at a disadvantage.
