Are you born with a beautiful voice?

Where we as adults sometimes forget how to breathe correctly, a baby actually just does it by itself. A baby breathes combined: with the belly and the chest. As the baby becomes a toddler and child, and the child becomes a teenager, he sometimes loses belly breathing. Kids are often – with the best of intentions – mis-corrected in their posture:

• Stand up straight, shoulders back, chest out. (this creates too much tension in the chest and too little space to breathe naturally)
• Pull in your belly. (This stops the natural movement of abdominal breathing, which is necessary for relaxed and healthy breathing. Without deep abdominal breathing, you breathe high and create tension in the body (stress).

Breathing increases and this causes the auxiliary respiratory muscles to take over and create tensions around the throat. One of the many consequences? A tense or hoarse voice!

I have listed a few tips for you!

1. Low belly breathing.
   – Inhale: belly below the navel goes out. Exhale: belly goes in.
   – Chest remains relaxed as much as possible. (Tip: you should not see the breathing increase at the clavicle)
2. Correct stable posture:
   – Standing stable.
   – Knees loose (because of this the pelvis will tilt) Often the focus is on tilting your pelvis, but in that case you are not natural. It is better to lock the knees first and then relax slightly. This causes the pelvis to automatically tilt from a natural movement, which is healthier for the body system.
   – Teach your kiddo to stand upright, but not 100%. 70% good posture is ideal. Otherwise, extra tension will creep into that posture again 😉
   – Easy tip for this: Visualize a string above the head pulling the spine and neck up. (puppet)
   – Double check if the chin is slightly downward, the neck should form a straight line.
   – Another trick: push the back of your child’s head and he / she can push back just a little bit. This will automatically show that the neck will be more stable and upright.
   By making the neck upright or long, kids breathe more freely!
3. Breathe through the nose. Teach your child to close the mouth and lips relaxed at all times while breathing.
   – This makes them less likely to suffer from infections or colds (the nose filters the air).
   – A VERY IMPORTANT ADVANTAGE: this stimulates a correct position of the tongue. What is this important for? The correct position of the tongue ensures that your child SWALLOWS correctly and develops a BEAUTIFUL STRAIGHT GEAR There is ALWAYS a connection between breathing through the mouth and wearing braces. The tongue is, in a manner of speaking, a living brace and will push the teeth crooked because the tongue position is wrong => and the cause of this is breathing through the mouth! (More on this in a future blog!)

A baby has a very special voice. This voice is actually a voice-effect from the singing world: the twang that is used as a technique by singers to sing extra high notes. (Just think of the high notes of Céline Dion, Ariana Grande, musical singers, …) The twang is a technique that ensures that you:

• can be louder without too much effort. (the baby has no problem with it either!)
• can sing extra high notes. (Here too the baby takes a big lead!)
• voice is not hoarse afterwards (after all, it strengthens the closure of your vocal cords)
• can sing with more extreme effects such as distortion or growl. (Some babies can also do this from the cradle!) 🙂