Teachers’ voice use in teaching environment. Aspects on speakers’ comfort

Teachers have high occupational voice demands. The voice load of teachers is both environmental and individual. Little is known about the teachers’ own view of the contribution from the environment and about the teachers’ voice use at their work-place. Aim: The purpose was to investigate the voice use and prevalence of voice problems in teachers and to explore their ratings of vocally loading aspects of their working environment. Method: A questionnaire-survey in 467 teachers aiming to explore the prevalence of voice problems in teaching staff identified teachers with voice problems and vocally healthy colleagues separated in two groups, teachers with self-assessed voice problems and vocally healthy teachers. Teachers with voice problems were further, matched to a voice healthy colleague from the same school. The pairs were investigated and compared for clinical findings and for vocal behavior in the teaching environment and aspects of the classroom environment were also measured. Results: Teachers with voice problems were more affected by any loading factor in the work-environment and were more perceptive of the room acoustics. Differences between the groups were found during field-measurements of the voice, while there were no differences in the findings from the clinical examinations of larynx and voice. Conclusion: Teachers suffering from voice problems react stronger to loading factors in the teaching environment. It is in the interplay between the individual and the work environment that voice problems emerge