Stuttering may be transferred from childhood or acquired in childhood or adulthood. There are numerous causes for acquired stuttering in teenage and adulthood. Which may range from faulty learning, copying someone else’s stuttering, emotional or physical trauma/abuse, lack of public speaking causing anxiety, etc.

Regular Fluency therapy can help the person with stuttering to overcome from it and produce fluent and confident speech.

Voice Disorders are one of the most common Speech Disorders at teenage and adulthood. They may be a result of various causes.

Voice Disorders are numerous and can be divided into various types depending on the cause, type of dysfunction and site of lesion.

A few of the common teenage and adulthood Voice Disorders are given below:

Puberphonia - Puberphonia is also known as functional falsetto. The laryngeal mechanism goes through a dramatic change in both males and females during puberty. The male voice lowers about one octave during mutation and the female voice lowers one to three semitones. When this acoustic change does not take place following the normal physical maturation, and individual is saids to have functional falsetto. This occurs more frequently in males than females but can occur with both. The voice qualities associated with Puberphonia include:

• High pitch
• Low intensity
• Breathiness
• Breaks in phonation and frequency
• Neck and throat tension

Voice therapy is always the treatment of choice with this disorder.

Vocal Nodules - Vocal nodules are hard, rough, noncancerous growths on your vocal cords. They can be as small as a pinhead or as large as a pea. You get nodules from straining or overusing your voice, especially from singing, yelling, or talking loudly or for a long period of time. Vocal nodules change the sound of your voice, making it:

• Hoarse
• Raspy or scratchy
• Tired sounding
• Breathy
• Crack or break
• Lower-pitched than usual

The Vocal Nodules can be managed medico-surgically by an ENT specialist and therapeutically by a Speech Therapist.

Muscle tension dysphonia – Muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) is one of the most common voice disorders. It occurs when the muscles around the larynx (voice box) are so tight during speaking that the voice box does not work efficiently. MTD is more prevalent among people in the 40- to 50-year-old age group, especially women. This condition usually requires voice therapy.

Vocal Cord Paralysis - Vocal cord paralysis occurs when the nerve impulses to your voice box (larynx) are disrupted. This results in paralysis of the vocal cord muscles. Vocal cord paralysis can affect your ability to speak and even breathe. That's because your vocal cords, sometimes called vocal folds, do more than just produce sound. They also protect your aidsway by preventing food, drink and even your saliva from entering your windpipe (trachea) and causing you to choke. Possible causes include nerve damage during surgery, viral infections, and certain cancers. Treatment for vocal cord paralysis usually involves surgery, and voice therapy.