Vocal Demands: Sports, Theater, Work
Map the real loud events in a teenager's week and plan the voice around them.
Session summary (SOAP)
Stays on this screen. Nothing is saved or sent.
Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.
How to run it
Map the actual week before offering any advice. Vocal hygiene delivered as a general list is ignored; the same advice attached to Friday's game and Saturday's shift is a plan. The projection card is worth real time — students in theatre are often taught to project badly, and the distinction between projection and shouting is a genuine technique. Fifteen minutes covers the mapping and one change.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentRead the card and wait 5 seconds for the student's answer.Log as correct
- HintAsk 'How would your voice feel after that?'Log as cued
- Two choicesOffer two answers, the right one not always second.Log as cued
- ExplainGive the answer and the reason; the student says it back in their own words.Log as cued
Voice work belongs after an ENT examination. If hoarseness lasts or gets worse, stop and refer back to the physician.
Adjust it
Use fewer cards and sort into just two groups.
Plan what the student will do in their own hardest voice situation this week.
Matching IEP goal
Given everyday scenarios, Student will identify the voice-healthy choice and a reason in 8 of 10 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions.
Send it home through the parent portal →About this activity
Eight real vocal demands from a teenager's week: cheering through a whole game — what's the plan before, during and after; you work a drive-through headset shift, where is the strain coming from; choir rehearsal on top of a full school day, where do you rest; coaching younger kids outdoors, how do you get attention without yelling; theatre projection is not yelling, what is the difference. The last card asks them to rank the week and change one thing.
What to listen for
Listen for the cumulative load rather than any single event. A choir rehearsal after a full school day is a second shift on an already tired voice, and students describe the two separately without connecting them. Notice the headset shift, where the strain comes from talking over ambient noise while hearing yourself through one ear — a specific and under-recognised source of load. Heavy voice users are exactly the group where a change should be looked at rather than absorbed: hoarseness lasting more than about four weeks, in a student who sings, acts or coaches, warrants an ENT examination before the load is managed.
Carrying it home
Families schedule most of this. Knowing that a game and a shift on the same day is a hard combination lets them space things differently, which is easier than asking a teenager to talk less.
What's in this activity
- Cheering through a whole game -- what's the plan before, during and after?
- You work a drive-through headset shift. Where is the strain coming from?
- Choir rehearsal on top of a full school day -- where do you rest?
- Coaching younger kids outdoors -- how do you get attention without yelling?
- Theater projection is not yelling. What is the difference?
- A retail shift on a loud floor -- how many vocal breaks?
- A weekend speech or debate tournament -- how do you pace yourself?
- Rank this week's loudest moments and pick one to change.
Questions
- What ages is this for?
- Ninth through twelfth grade, where vocal load comes from jobs, sports and performance rather than from the classroom.
- Do I need an account?
- No, all eight cards are free to use here.
- What is the difference between projection and yelling?
- Projection uses breath support and resonance to carry the voice; yelling uses force at the vocal folds. The first is trainable and sustainable, and the second is what causes the damage.
Use this board with your caseload
With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.
Track progress freeFree for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.