Objective: Clinicians and voice teachers often report that getting clients to carry over concepts between sessions and outside of sessions is difficult. And, clients report that while their voice may feel better and different within a session, they have trouble maintaining the learned skills outside of sessions. When tasks are assigned in a “prescriptive” way, the effects are short-term, such as vocalizing only in SOVTEs. However, when clients are able to somatically “memorize” new sensations, they create new motor pathways and therefore new vocal patterns and behaviors, such as in using an SOVTE to decrease laryngeal sensation, and then transferring that tool into syllables, words, and conversational or sung phrases.

Methods: In this interactive workshop, participants will learn how somatic awareness affects vocal pattern changes, to then learn practical tools for identifying and developing the difference between “prescriptive” and pattern-changing “behavioral” exercises that emphasize motor learning and somatic awareness. Using one practice case study, participants will be given a template to write a session plan and home exercise plan distinguishing “prescriptive” versus “behavioral” tasks. Then, using two live participant volunteers, all participants will provide real-time thinking on how to structure tasks in a behavioral way based on the volunteer participant’s real-time somatic experience.

Results and conclusions: Participants will leave with a better understanding of how to create tasks that have behavioral generalization outside of their clinic or studio in a responsive, thoughtful, and relevant manner.