Voice use in teaching environments: Speakers' comfort

Sammanfattning: Teachers have high occupational voice demands and is a group frequently presented at voice clinics. Little is known about the teachers’ own view of the contribution from the environment and about the teachers’ voice use at their work-place. The purpose of the present thesis was ; to develop and assess a self-rating instrument for the rating of throat-related problems in relation to voice, to investigate the voices and the voice use of teaching staff in their teaching environment, to explore the prevalence of voice problems in Swedish teachers, to explore the teachers’ ratings of aspects of their working environment that can be presumed to have an impact on vocal behavior and voice function, to clinically assess the voice function in teachers with self-rated voice problems and to compare to the voice function in their vocally healthy colleagues. It was shown that voice problems in teachers emerge in the interplay of the individual and the environment and that 13% of the teachers suffer from voice problems. Teachers with voice problems are more affected by any loading factor in the work-environment than their voice healthy colleagues, and they are more perceptive of the room acoustics. The differences between the teachers with voice problems and their voice healthy colleagues were shown during field-measurements of the voice during a whole typical school day, while the findings from the clinical examinations of larynx and voice did not differ between the groups Teachers with voice problems differ from their voice healthy colleagues also in their ratings of the time for vocal recovery and by suffering from voice problems also without a concurring cold. No correlation was found between subjective assessment of voice problems and deviations of laryngeal morphology or voice quality. When investigating or diagnosing voice dysfunction, the individual’s self assessment of the problems needs to be covered. Reports of throat-symptoms are common in investigations of teachers’ voices. The Voice Handicap Index-Throat proved to be a stable instrument for the estimation of self-perceived voice and throat problems. In conclusion: Teachers with voice problems are more affected by vocally loading factors in the work-environment, 13% of the teachers suffer from voice problems and the differences in their voice use differed from their voice healthy colleagues’ clearest, measured during a whole school-day.