Subjective self-ratings through a prolonged reading task in dysphonic versus normophonic female teachers

Abstract

Aim: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact that a 2-hour reading task could have on ones voice in 16 normophonic and 16 dysphonic female teachers. Method and material: Teachers’ voices were orally loaded by reading a novel. They were instructed to read for imaginary students, as in their classroom. Voice intensity was constantly controlled between 70 and 75 dB. Every 30 minutes, participants were asked to answer the following questions using a 100-mm horizontal visual analogue scale: 1) How is your voice quality? 2) Do you feel any phonation effort? 3) Do you feel any vocal fatigue? and 4) Do you feel any laryngeal discomfort? Results and conclusions: For all subjective self-ratings, the repeated measures ANOVA demonstrated significant main effects of the duration (p < 0.0001) and of the group (p < 0.05). Subjects of both groups reported a worsening of their voice quality during the reading while phonation effort, vocal fatigue and laryngeal discomfort increased. Surprisingly, no significant interaction between duration and group was found. This means that subjective self-ratings realized before and during the reading task depict a similar evolution of both groups, while we expected more worsening of voice through time in the dysphonic group