It seemed to you that you know your son, but recently you seem not to recognize him? All your advice is taken with hostility, he does not hear what you say to him, and does everything as if in spite, and even is rude to you. Don't worry, this is adolescence for boys.
For teenage boys, the arrival of this period in life means changes not only external, but also internal. The boy gradually becomes a man. For some, such a transformation occurs quite painlessly and is almost not noticeable. But there are few such lucky ones. Rather, the most fortunate, of course, are the parents of such young people. But more often a boy has to go through a difficult period of his life before becoming a man.
When does puberty begin in boys?
The period of transitional age in young men usually takes place at the age of 14-15. At this time, an increase in physical strength and a hormonal explosion lead to the fact that the boy is trying to prove to everyone that he is already an adult. But such a desire during the transitional age comes up against a psychological unwillingness to lead an adult life and perform truly adult actions.
Teenage transitional age leads to the fact that the once calm and, perhaps, obedient boy becomes aggressive, stubborn, uncontrollable.
At what age does a beard grow
All teenagers want to look more mature and courageous at a certain period. Around this time, young people are interested in when the beard begins to grow. You have to disappoint teenagers, facial hair begins to appear after 16 years. Someone later, by 17 and even by 19 years.
Loss of voice in boys
Another sign that a boy is becoming a man is a masculine low voice, which replaces the children's treble. At what age do boys break their voice, a question that worries both parents and adolescents themselves.
In fact, the voice does not break, but endures characteristic changes, which are due to both the growth of the larynx and the action of hormones. The vocal cords become longer and thicker. The tonality of the voice becomes lower, the timbre acquires density. At first, the young man “gives a rooster”, but later his voice is established, changing completely.
puberty
Puberty is the ability to have children. Puberty in boys is associated with the production of the hormone gonadoliberin. This has been going on since about 11 years of age. In this case, at first the hormone is produced by the body only at night during the period deep sleep. Later, the release of the hormone is carried out regardless of whether the young man is sleeping or awake. This hormone then affects the formation of spermatozoa and male sex hormones.
Problems of transitional age
Often this age is called problematic. It is very important to find mutual language with a teenager during this period, it is even better for parents to be an authority for him.
Many difficulties are related to the psychological side of the issue. Teenagers, even being calm and balanced earlier, begin to behave in a completely different way. They are rude, they can even be rude to the elders. A passion for denial wakes up, youthful maximalism, coupled with teenage nihilism, is a real test for parents, one should be wise here.
The other side of the coin is external changes in adolescence, which do not always carry positive emotions. We are talking about the occurrence of acne and acne on the face at this time, which can become a real disaster for young men who dream of becoming adult men as soon as possible. This annoyance is due active work sebaceous glands in adolescence.
Puberty in boys
Puberty, which is also called the time of onset of puberty, is different for all young men. Someone has to learn all the problems of this period, which were mentioned above, others experience it much easier. Usually, the preparatory period for puberty starts at the age of 10 and ends with full puberty by the age of 20-21.
How to get through transition
Adults who did not find time for their own children later regret it. At the same time, your already growing child must be trusted. Do not lisp, communicate with him as with an adult, but at the same time do not get carried away with controlling his free time, give him a certain freedom. It is especially difficult with the last nuance, because parents are afraid of how their growing son will manage his free time, hobbies, sports, music, that's what can help to spend free time usefully.
Parents are encouraged to be patient. It is very important to be attentive to your son who is going through this age period. Often the children themselves do not mind talking about their problems with their elders, but they always have no time. It is necessary to know with whom the teenager communicates, what he lives with, is fond of, what he loves, finally.
Since children grow unevenly, one guy may also be a small sprout, and his bass is already breaking through with might and main, and the other has grown a mile away, and the larynx is still small, the voice is still childish. These are the boys who have the hardest time, they are more embarrassed than others by their voice. What happens to the voice and at what age?
The otorhinolaryngologist and phoniatrist, MD tells. Gennady Ivanchenko.
Whistles and flutes
The voice is born with the help of several systems of the body: the larynx, vocal folds (in everyday speech they are called cords), lungs, chest and nasopharynx. A jet of air, escaping from the lungs, causes the vocal folds to vibrate with a certain frequency, while the chest and nasopharynx serve as resonators. The larger and thicker the vocal folds, the lower the sound. Although not always. For example, Caruso's vocal folds were twice as large as those of other profundo basses, and Caruso sang in tenor.
In boys, as in girls, the larynx is small, the folds are small, and only their edges vibrate under the influence of a stream of air. Experts call this the falsetto mechanism of sound production. The larynx is like a whistle. Nature has conceived it so that a child, in whom all sound-producing systems are still small, can still be heard. And in fact, the squeals of children are so well audible that, for example, going to school during a break, you can simply go deaf.
Folds - a hormone-dependent structure
But at the age of 13-14, under the influence of various hormones, mainly sexual, boys begin to grow, lengthen and thicken the vocal folds. These folds are a hormone-dependent structure. It is not for nothing that eunuchs have a high, childish voice - they themselves have the complexion of quite adult men, and the vocal folds do not reach adult sizes, because sex hormones are not produced in the body.
For the same reason, the voice of the elderly becomes higher - after all, there are less and less sex hormones in the body. And in women, in old age, on the contrary, the voice sounds at lower tones, again there are not enough hormones, only female ones, which change the folds so that the sound is high and sonorous.
An adult can speak and sing in falsetto even with a normally developed vocal apparatus. True, without the habit it is not very convenient. But it is fashionable, not without reason that some radio hosts say so and Presnyakov Jr. sings. For an adult, however, such a mechanism for the formation of sound is more natural, when the entire fold vibrates, the voice wave goes both horizontally and vertically. Therefore, the adult voice turns out to be deeper, more beautiful, and more diverse in color. In ordinary speech, we use 2-3 tones above and below our root tone. And the singer takes two octaves.
Fear of the new
It is difficult for a teenager to go from falsetto to a full-fledged sound production process. But the problem here is rather not, but psychological: the boy is used to the sound of his children's voice, and the new voice - baritone or bass - frightens him. When talking, he uses either the old mechanism for the birth of sound, or a new one.
Since children grow unevenly, one guy may also be a small sprout, and his bass is already breaking through with might and main, and the other has grown a mile away, and the larynx is still small, the voice is still childish. These boys, who are ahead of their peers or behind them, have the hardest time, they are more embarrassed than others by their voice. But for the majority, breaking the voice is a normal physiological process: the voice has become lower and rougher - well, okay. The majority quickly gropes for a new mechanism for the formation of sounds. On rare occasions, a teenager needs the help of a phonopedist, a voice-training specialist who usually works with singers. Is that a few of those who grow up surrounded by women alone. These boys even have no one to imitate, no one to take an example from. But even for them, one lesson is usually enough, in which a doctor or a phonopedist will show exercises for setting and fixing a normal male voice.
Three Features
There are three features of adolescent mutation that are useful for parents to know.
● During the breaking of the voice, it is not necessary to load the vocal folds. And the boys, unfortunately, do not take care of them, they strain at every step: sometimes, playing football, they yell like crazy, then they sing songs with the guitar at the top of their voices ... Due to overvoltage, nodules can appear on the folds, doctors call them that - nodules of screamers. These nodules change the vibration of the folds and the voice becomes hoarse. Some nodules then dissolve by themselves if the load falls, but sometimes they have to be removed - to do microsurgical operations.
● Colds can delay the mutation. Not always a red throat in a teenager is a sign of a respiratory infection. When the larynx grows, blood circulation in it increases, the tissues become more red, it seems that the child has laryngitis. They begin to treat the boy for a cold, give him medicines, take him to the doctors ... And there is just a normal physiological process.
If the mutation has dragged on, that is, the boy has already stopped growing upwards, and his voice has not become manly low, you need to show the teenager to the phoniatrist. The longer the guy speaks in falsetto, the more difficult it will be for him to switch to adult tones.
● We are not destined to know what kind of "adult" voice a beautifully singing little boy will have. It happens in childhood a high clear voice, but a mutation has passed, and the voice turned out to be the most banal - both in color, and in timbre, and in strength. Everyone famous example— Robertino Loretti. And nothing can be done: what is given is given.
Interesting
Curious case. Once, an officer, and not of the smallest rank, turned to phoniatrists - doctors who study the features of the work of the vocal apparatus. Quite an adult, and the voice is like that of a boy. It turns out to be frivolous. The doctors helped him, taught him to speak in a baritone voice.
Since ancient times, nature has laid it so that a person must communicate. Almost all children are born with thin voices, and by adolescence, voice breaking begins to occur. In fact, this process affects both male and female ligaments, although this is not so noticeable in girls.
What does the process itself look like?
The beginning of the air wave comes from the lungs, reaches the ligaments and causes them to oscillate. As for the chest and nasopharynx, they act as resonators. The pitch of the sound depends on the thickness of the vocal cords - the thinner they are, like in girls, the higher the voice, and vice versa - the thicker the cords, like in boys, the lower.
Nature made sure that parents always heard their child. Therefore, from birth, each person has small and thin ligaments.
As they grow, they increase in size and thicken, respectively, the sound changes its tone.
But during puberty, the speed and degree of growth has gender differences. The female larynx changes twice, while the male larynx changes by 70%.
That is why adolescents have such significant differences in timbre, both by gender and between each other. But it’s worth saying right away that such a process is absolutely individual, therefore some boys have had a bass for 12 years, while others still communicate in a tenor at 15.
There are three main stages of mutation.
- pre-mutation period. At this time, the body is preparing for future restructuring, and all systems are involved in this stage.
- the sound becomes more hoarse;
- hoarseness, perspiration are noted, which are accompanied by a slight cough.
But it is worth noting that if a boy or girl is engaged in singing, then such symptoms may manifest themselves somewhat differently, because singers have more trained ligaments. Firstly, high notes will not come on as easily as before. Secondly, the child may begin to complain of pain in the larynx while singing.
The vocal teachers themselves will begin to make comments about the "dirt" in the sound. Although in a "calm" state, such signs may not be observed. The vocal cords need rest at this time, since the restructuring process and the simultaneous load on them can lead to the fact that a person simply loses “his sound”.
- Crack of voice. At this time, the larynx begins to flow, and mucus may be observed. Such moments provoke the onset of the development of inflammatory processes.
Therefore, if you look into the mouth of a teenager, you can see that the surface of the vocal cords has become red. It is this state that requires rest, because increased load can lead to underdevelopment of the organ.
During such a period, it is worth taking special care to protect yourself from colds and viral diseases, otherwise, after the teenage period passes, there is a risk that the boys will still have the sound of a tenor.
- post-mutation period. This is an individual process. Many factors play a role here, ranging from nationality, and ending with personal physiological, and sometimes genetic characteristics. In boys and girls, it can occur in different ways, and take different amount time. Usually towards the end "own sound" the child begins to complain of rapid fatigue of the vocal cords. But now it will become more noticeable that the voice does not have drops anymore, it becomes more stable.
Influence of hormones
Adolescence is characterized by rapid activation of hormonal processes. It is these substances that are responsible for external and internal changes in human body- in boys, hair begins to grow actively all over the body, develops puberty, there is a wet dream, a sharp growth of the skeleton and muscle mass. As for girls, their breasts begin to grow, their body shape changes, menstruation begins.
The vocal cords are also very dependent on hormones. If during adolescence they receive less of their components, they will not be able to acquire "adult" sizes - to become more elongated and dense. Accordingly, the voice will not break, which means that the young man will remain high enough.
By the way, in girls it is always higher, since their sex hormones are not produced in the same quantity as in boys, and besides, they are completely different. It is interesting to note the moment that by old age male voice becomes higher, and the female lower. And all these moments are due to the fact that the hormonal background receives less of its components.
Breaking the voice is associated not only with physiological, but also with psychological discomfort. And for both boys and girls. But women's ligaments grow a little slower, so when the moment of puberty comes, they are still short compared to men's. Therefore, the mutation is not so obvious.
And a sharp change in the timbre of a girl can be associated with a malfunction of hormones. But in this case, parents are required to show their daughter to an endocrinologist, because this may indicate serious endocrine diseases. If the girl does not have obvious symptoms of breaking her voice, then the mutation process is going on naturally and there is nothing to worry about.
Most teenagers do not even notice how their voice breaks. This is due to the fact that such a process simply does not cause them any discomfort.
Different children of the same age may have a different tone of voice, as their larynxes will be at different stages of development. But no matter what state the child is in, parents should know what actions are permissible during this period, and why it is worth abstaining.
- moderate load. This is more advice for parents of boys than girls. Excessive stress on the vocal cords provokes the formation of nodules, which further lead to hoarseness. Such a defect can go away on its own, but in some cases surgery is indispensable;
- during the mutation period, it is worth protecting the child from colds. This can tighten the breaking of the voice. If a young man for a long time continues to have high tones, then parents are advised to show it to such a specialist as a phoniatrist;
- Parents should explain to the child that "own sound" unique, and it will be as laid down by nature. Very often, little boys try to imitate this or that hero. Such fanaticism can lead to the fact that the young man overloads his ligaments and they simply "break".
Nature itself lays this or that tone of voice, and no one can change it. Therefore, your timbre should be taken as a given and does not oppose it. And there is no way to speed up the breaking of the voice, because this process is natural and it is impossible to influence it.
The appearance of a voice in a person occurs through several organs: the vocal cords, larynx, nasopharynx, chest, lungs. Air, escaping from the lungs, makes the vocal folds vibrate, and the nasopharynx and chest are resonators. The pitch of the sound depends on the thickness and length of the vocal cords - the larger and thicker they are, the lower the sound. In children, the larynx is small, the vocal folds are small, so the voice of children is high and sonorous.
When and why do boys break their voices?
At the age of 12-14 years, age-related changes in the body begin in boys, under the influence of sex hormones, the ligaments begin to grow, thicken and lengthen. At this time, they show signs of breaking their voices - it goes from a high timbre to a low one and vice versa. This is what is called voice mutation. Often at this time a problem arises, but not physiological, but rather psychological: the boy is used to the sound of his high voice, but the adult bass sometimes frightens him. But for most boys, voice mutation is a completely natural process and lasts an average of several months.
What to do if the voice breaks?
Parents should be aware of three features of teenage voice mutation:
- during the period of withdrawal, it is impossible to load the vocal cords, due to overstrain, nodules appear on the folds, as a result of which the voice becomes hoarse;
- avoid colds - the mutation may be delayed;
- what kind of voice will a teenager have in adult life- it is not known: what is laid down by nature, that cannot be changed.
Teenagers are often interested in how to speed up the breaking of the voice. So, it will not work in any way, because mutation is a natural physiological process, and, as you know, it is not worth interfering with nature.
Do girls' voices break?
The thing is that the vocal folds in girls grow more slowly than in boys, and by the beginning of puberty they are still much shorter in girls. The voice of girls also breaks, but not as clearly and not as quickly as in boys. 
This process cannot be called a mutation because such a breakdown of the voice is not associated with hormonal changes in the girl's body.
This or that timbre of voice is inherent in a person by nature and we must take it for granted. It will take time for a growing child to get used to his new voice. Explain to the child that breaking the voice is a kind of beginning of the path to adulthood. And if the parents take the teenager seriously during the mutation of his voice, they will support him good advice, then this process will be the least painful and much faster.
A lot has been written about mutational voice changes in boys. scientific papers, although this phenomenon is quite common. A change in the timbre of the voice occurs in the process of growth of the vocal apparatus. The larynx initially increases significantly in size, while the thyroid cartilage leans forward. The vocal folds lengthen and the larynx descends. In this regard, there is an anatomical change in the organs of voice formation. If we talk about the mutation of the voice in boys, then unlike girls, everything is more pronounced in them.
As mentioned earlier, voice change occurs through the expansion of the larynx in the process of growth. However, during puberty, in boys, the larynx increases by 70%, unlike girls, the voice tube, which only doubles.
This stage manifests itself as the preparation of the body for the restructuring of the vocal apparatus. If we talk about a conversational voice, then there may be voice breakdowns, hoarseness, coughing, and an unpleasant "tickle". The singing voice is more informative in this case: voice breakdowns when taking the extreme notes of the young man's range, unpleasant sensations in the larynx during vocal lessons, "dirty" intonation, and sometimes loss of voice. At the first bells, it is worth stopping classes, since this period requires rest of the vocal apparatus.
This stage is characterized by swelling of the larynx, as well as excessive or insufficient secretion of mucus. These factors cause inflammation, thereby the surface of the ligaments acquires a characteristic color. Overexertion can lead to wheezing, and as a result, to "non-closure of the vocal folds." Therefore, during this period, you should carefully consider voice hygiene, including the prevention of colds and viral diseases. There is instability of the voice, sound distortion, as well as a characteristic hoarseness. When singing, tension of the vocal apparatus is observed, especially when jumping at wide intervals. Therefore, in the classroom it is worth leaning towards singing exercises, chants, and not works.
Like any other process, voice mutation in boys does not have a clear end limit. Despite the final formation, overwork and tension of the ligaments can be observed. During this period, the changes that have taken place are consolidated. The voice acquires a fixed timbre and strength. However, the stage is dangerous due to its instability.
The signs of voice breaking in young men are more noticeable and this is due, first of all, to the fact that the male voice, in fact, is much lower than the female one. The mutation period is short time. There are cases when it happens almost instantly. However, in most cases, the restructuring of the body is delayed for several months. Just yesterday, a boyish treble can turn into a tenor, baritone or powerful bass. It all depends on genetic factors. Some young men undergo significant changes, while others - the transition to an adult voice is not expressed by a bright contrast.
Voice mutation in boys most often occurs at 12-14 years of age. However, it is not worth focusing on this age as the norm. There are many factors that can affect both the start time and the duration of the process.
First, undoubtedly, the natural climate influences. The ongoing studies have shown that in different climatic conditions the process of “growing up” of the voice occurs in different ways, and the age of restructuring ranges from 11 to 20 years.
Hygiene of the singing voice during the period of mutation in boys
Singing voice mutation is a complex process that requires great attention from vocal teachers or phoniatrists who accompany the educational process. Measures for the protection and hygiene of the voice should be carried out in a complex manner, and their beginning should fall on the pre-mutation period. This will avoid disruption of voice development, both at the physical and mechanical levels.
Vocal lessons should be carried out in a gentle mode. However, during this period it is better to refuse individual lessons, since such classes are designed for comprehensive development voice data. And during the period of breaking the voice in boys, any overstrain of the ligaments is prohibited. However, there is an alternative - these are choral classes and ensembles. As a rule, young men are given an easy part, the range of which does not exceed fifths, more often in a small octave. All these conditions are not valid if the process is accompanied by periodic breakdowns of the voice, wheezing or instability of unison pronunciations.
Mutation in young men is undoubtedly a complex process, but with right approach and observance of the postulates of protection and hygiene of the voice, you can "survive" it without consequences and with benefit.