Vocal fatigue over a workday: A schoolteacher case study

Abstract

Due to the vocal demands in their workplace and other factors, schoolteachers appear to be especially susceptible to long-term voice problems. Because female schoolteachers appear to engender an even higher risk, this case study focused on speech measures of one female elementary schoolteacher who reported feeling hoarse. The teacher was recorded over the course of a typical school day. Certain speech traits in the teacher’s speech performance during elicitation tasks were evaluated by comparing changes from the beginning to the end of the school day. A strong correlation between the mean, standard deviation, skew, and kurtosis of long term average spectra (LTAS) and vocal fatigue was found, while other measures were found to be less consistent. The methods and findings will be discussed, and areas for further research suggested.