The impact of voice disorders among teachers: vocal complaints, treatment-seeking behavior, knowledge of vocal care, and voice-related absenteeism

OBJECTIVES: Teachers are at increased risk for developing voice disorders. Occupational risk factors have been extensively examined; however, little attention has been paid to the consequences of the vocal complaints. The objective of this study was to investigate the knowledge that teachers have about vocal care, treatment-seeking behavior, and voice-related absenteeism. METHODS: The study group comprised 994 teachers and 290 controls whose jobs did not involve vocal effort. All participants completed a questionnaire inquiring about vocal complaints, treatment-seeking behavior, voice-related absenteeism, and knowledge about vocal care. Comparisons were made between teachers with and without vocal complaints and with the control group. RESULTS: Teachers reported significantly more voice problems than the control population (51.2% vs 27.4%) (chi(2)=50.45, df=1, P<0.001). Female teachers reported significantly higher levels of voice disorders than their male colleagues (38% vs 13.2%, chi(2)=22.34, df=1, P<0.001). Teachers (25.4%) sought medical care and eventually 20.6% had missed at least 1 day of work because of voice problems. Female teachers were significantly more likely to seek medical help (chi(2)=7.24, df=1, P=0.007) and to stay at home (chi(2)=7.10, df=1, P=0.008) in comparison with their male colleagues. Only 13.5% of all teachers received information during their education. CONCLUSIONS: Voice disorders have an impact on teachers' personal and professional life and imply a major financial burden for society. A substantial number of teachers needed medical help and was obligated to stay at home because of voice problems. This study strongly recommends the implementation of vocal education during the training of teacher students to prepare the vocal professional user

Nasalance and nasality in children with cochlear implants and children with hearing aids

A

Een gevalsstudie in forensische fonetiek

In de forensische fonetiek gaat het niet zozeer over de herkenning van een spraakklank, maar veeleer over de herkenning van een spreker. Nochtans zijn de concepten, grootheden en meetinstrumenten waarvan men zich bedient in wezen dezelfde. Akoestische details die voldoende variëren van spreker tot spreker en tegelijk voor een gegeven spreker relatief constant zijn, zijn echter moeilijk te vinden. In de forensische fonetiek bestaat er (nog) geen definitieve set van parameters en is er evenmin een vast protocol voor spreker-identificatie of authenticatie van opnames: men moet parameters en protocol aanpassen aan de voorhanden zijnde data. Deze bijdrage gaat over een geval van dreigtelefoons. De auteurs werd gevraagd om een kopie van de originele opname van een antwoordapparaat, gemaakt door politie, te verifiëren (authenticatie) en om vervolgens na te gaan of een verdachte effectief als de spreker in de opname aanzien kon worden (spreker-identificatie)

Dutch evalutation of ability to sing easily (ease) : a pilot study

C

Tape authentication and voice identification: a case study in forensic acoustic phonetics

Audio tapes are often used as evidence in courtrooms. This report is about a case of threatening telephone calls. Tape authentication was done by visual and statistical analysis of pitch and loudness contours. Voice identification was done by means of a “voice line-up”, i.e. judging differences and similarities in a series of matched voices (including the defendants’ voice) and the voice on the exhibit recording. Methods for authentication and identification are described in detail