The Mental Emotional Health Blog

I have laryngitis today, which makes for some interesting therapy. I’m glad I only have a half day here at work before heading out of the office until Monday.

It seems I’ve been losing my voice about once a year, but this is the second time it’s happened now in the past 4 months or so. Anyway, when I lose my voice it forces me to adjust my communication and obviously influences how my clients respond to me. Since I’m whispering and writing on my dry-erase board instead of talking, sometimes they are more involved and listen more closely. One child I met with this morning tends to be oppositional a decent part of the time, but today I noticed he was whispering back to me as I whispered to him. There are many parents who would love it if their oppositional child whispered instead of yelled. 

If you are a person who tends to raise your voice, you might try whispering on purpose every once in a while to get your point across. I will tell you parents out there, however, that whispering tends to work better with younger children than teens. It works sometimes with my own 4 year old son, but not all the time. The kid knows his dad and some of his “parenting tricks” so that makes parenting more of a challenge for me. By the way, this is a little off-topic but is related: there’s no shame in asking other parents for ideas when it comes to getting and holding your child’s attention.

As far as my “voice”, I’m glad I can type, write, or whisper until I get it back.

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