Prevalence of vocal problems: Speech-language pathologists’ evaluation of music and non-music teacher recordings

Abstract

The current study, a preliminary examination of whether music teachers are more susceptible to vocal problems than teachers of other subjects, asked for expert evaluation of audio recordings from licensed speech-language pathologists. Participants (N = 41) taught music (n = 23) or another subject (n = 18) in either elementary (n = 21), middle (n = 10), or high school (n = 10), and had a mean of 14 years’ teaching experience. Each teacher read a poem while being audio recorded. Nine licensed speech-language pathologists with a mean of 20 years’ clinical experience served as expert evaluators by listening to the 41 recordings while manipulating the Continuous Response Digital Interface (CRDI) dial. Results showed no significant differences between music and non-music teacher evaluations. The individual variations in scores showed no trends for any particular group, but rather pointed out how personal vocal hygiene (care of the voice) is for individual teachers. Suggestions for future research include ways to best help teachers manage individual vocal problems.

Keywords

music teacher speech pathology vocal health vocal hygiene voice

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