Objective voice analysis in elementary school teachers

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Speech Therapy Dept., Rehabilitation Sciences, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan,Iran.

Abstract

Introduction. The aim of the present study was to examine a number of vocal acoustic parameters in a group of male and female elementary school teachers in comparison to their normal peers.

Materials and Methods. Fifteen female and 15 male primary schoolteachers in the age range of 35–40 years with 15 years teaching experience volunteered to participate in the study. The control group consisted of similar age who they were not teacher (15 men and 15 women). Recordings and audio signal analyses were carried out using Praat software. Each subject was asked to sustain the vowel /^a/ using habitual and constant vocal pitch, loudness, and quality for at least 5 seconds. Five tokens from each subject were obtained.

Results. For the male subjects, the results indicated no significant difference (at the 0.05 level) for each variable between the two groups. However, for the female subjects, t tests showed significant differences between the teachers and the nonteacher controls in all parameters at the 0.01 level. The female teachers had significantly lower F0 (190.27 Hz) than the control group (236.32 Hz). Also, for the perturbation acoustic parameters (jitter% and shimmer%) and harmonics-to-noise ratio the female teacher group had significantly higher values than their corresponding control group.

Discussion.The results indicate that female teachers appear to be more susceptible to voice stability change than the male teachers. Also, acoustic analysis of voice for teachers may significantly contribute to the objective voice examination of this group.

Keywords

References

1-Niebudek-Bogusz E, Koty1o P, Sliwi_nska-Kowalska M. Evaluation of voice acoustic parameters related to the vocal-loading test in professionally active teachers with dysphonia. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2007;20:25–30.
2-Titze IR, Lemke J, Montequin D. Populations in the U.S. workforce who rely on voice as a primary tool of trade: a preliminary report. J Voice. 1997;11:254–259.
3-Roy N, Merrill RM, Thibeault S, Parsa R, Gray SD, Smith EM. Prevalence of voice disorders in teachers and general population. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2004;47:281–293.
4-Roy N, Merrill RM, Thibeault S, Gray SD, Smith EM. Voice disorders in teachers and the general population: effects on work performance, attendance, and future career choices. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2004;47: 542–551.
5-Smith E, Gray S, Dove H, Kirchner L, Heras H. Frequency and effects of teachers’ voice problems. J Voice. 1997;11:81–87.
6-Rantala L,Vilkman E. Relationship between subjective voice complaints and acoustic parameters in female teachers’ voices. J Voice. 1999;13:484–495.
7-Eustace C, Stemple J, Lee L. Objective measures of voice production in patients complaining of laryngeal fatigue. J Voice. 1996;10:146–154.
8-Gelfer MP, Andrews ML, Schmidt CP. Documenting laryngeal change following prolonged loud reading. A videostroboscopic study. J Voice. 1996;10:368–377.
9-Stemple JC, Stanley J, Lee L. Objective measures of voice production in normal subjects following prolonged voice use. J Voice. 1995;9:127–133.
10-Vilkman E, Lauri ER, Alku P, Sala E, Sihvo M. Effects of prolonged oral reading on F0, SPL, subglottal pressure and amplitude characteristics of glottal flow waveforms. J Voice. 1999;13:303–312.
11-Gelfer MP, Andrews M, Schmidt C. Effects of prolonged loud reading on selected measures of vocal function in trained and untrained singers. J Voice. 1991;5:158–167.
12-Rajasudhakar R, Savithri SR. Voicing periods in a primary school teacher. JAIISH. 2009;28:36–41.
13-Muller C. Speaker Classification: Fundamentals, Features, and Methods. New York, NY: Springer; 2007.
14-Bonetti L, Bonetti A, Bolfan-Stosic N. Harmonics to noise ratio in vocal professional voices. J Acoust Soc Am. 2002;111:2480–2481.
15-Hirano M. Clinical Examination of Voice. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag; 1981:83–84.
16-Paul B, Weenink D. Praat: doing phonetics by computer [Computer program]. Available at: http://www.praat.org/.
17-Parsa V, Jamieson DG. Acoustic discrimination of pathological voice: sustained vowels versus continuous speech. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2001;44: 327–339.
18-Scherer RC, Vail VJ, Guo CG. Required number of tokens to determine representative voice perturbation values. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 1995;38:1260–1269.
19-Williams J. Vocal Health for children and adults. Available at: http://www. jenevorawilliams.com/.
20-Preciado J, P_erez C, Calzada M, Preciado P. Function vocal examination and acoustic analysis of 905 teaching staff of La Rioja, Spain. Acta Otorrinolaringol Esp. 2005;56:261–272.
21-Butler JE, Hammond TH, Gray SD. Gender-related differences of hyaluronic acid distribution in the human vocal fold. Laryngoscope. 2001;111: 907–911.
22-Rantala L, Vilkman E, Bloigu R. Voice changes during work: subjective voice complaints and objective measurements for female primary and secondary school teachers. J Voice. 2002;16:344–355.
23-Rajasudhakar R, Savithri SR. Effects of teaching and voice rest on acoustic voice characteristics of female primary school teachers. JAIISH. 2010;29: 198–203.
24-Titze IR. Vocal fold mass is not a useful quantity for describing F0 in vocalization. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2011;54:520–522.
25-Laukkanen AM, Ilom€aki I, Lepp€anen K, Vilkman E. Acoustic measures and self-reports of vocal fatigue by female teachers. J Voice. 2008;22:283–289.
26-Yumoto E, Sasaki Y, Okamura H. Harmonics-to-noise ratio and psychophysical measurement of the degree of hoarseness. J Speech Hear Res.1984;27:2–6.
Jundishapur Scientific Medical Journal
Volume 19, Issue 6 - Serial Number 129
January and February 2021
Pages 565-575

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 18 August 2020
  • Revise Date: 01 October 2020
  • Accept Date: 11 October 2020

Share

How to cite

Statistics