Speech and Language Pathologists’ Voice Use in Working Environments: A Field Study Using Ambulatory Phonation Monitoring

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the speech and language pathologists’ (SLPs) voice production during a typical working day. Patients and Methods: A total of 28 SLPs, all females, were enrolled. According to the type of treated disease, the cohort of SLPs was divided into 4 groups (7 SLPs focused on the rehabilitation of dysphagic adult clients; 7 SLPs focused on the rehabilitation of deaf children; 7 SLPs focused on the rehabilitation of dysphonic adult clients; and 7 SLPs focused on the rehabilitation of aphasic adult clients). The voice production evaluation was performed using ambulatory phonation monitoring (APM). Results: Significant differences in the APM results were found between the 4 groups of SLPs. In particular, SLPs focusing on the treatment of dysphonic and deaf clients experienced a higher vocal load than SLPs focusing on the treatment of aphasic and dysphagic clients. Conclusion: SLPs may experience heavy vocal loads during working hours. In addition, it seems that some rehabilitation settings could be more vocally demanding than others.