Subjective and objective acoustic voice analysis of primary school teachers

Abstract

Introduction. Voice disorders in primary school teachers, as vocal professionals, are very common and often an inevitable phenomenon, which is unfortunately given little importance. Primary school teachers are at greater risk compared to other educators, because they rarely have opportunities for vocal rest during their working hours. The aim of this paper was to determine the acoustic voice characteristics of primary school teachers and their subjective experience of voice quality. Material and Methods. The study included 30 female teachers employed at the elementary school ?Branko Radicevic? in Banja Luka. For the purpose of objective acoustic analysis, the computer program Praat was used; for the purposes of subjective acoustic analysis the Grade, Instability, Roughness, Breathiness, Asthenia, and Strain scale was used, whereas the Voice Handicap Index was used for voice self-assessment. The effects of work experience, number of classes per week, bad habits and chronic diseases on voice quality were analyzed. Results. Statistically significant differences were found only in subjects who reported bad habits in the domain of subjective acoustic analysis, where pathological values were obtained for subscales grade, instability, roughness, breathiness and strain (p < 0.05), whereas the second statistically significant difference was observed in participants without previous history of chronic diseases, and who had significantly better speech intensity and lower harmonicsto-noise ratio (p < 0.05). Conclusion. In our research, objective and subjective acoustic analysis showed that about half of primary school teachers have voice disorders. Unhealthy habits and chronic diseases have a greater impact on the quality of voice of the primary school teachers than the length of work experience and the number of classes per week.