The focus of this research effort was to examine the prevalence and impact of voice problems among a sample of physical education teachers. The survey was administered to K-12 physical education teachers (n = 199) addressing three aspects of voice issues: consequences, strategies for prevention, and potential risk factors. The results indicated a…

Voice practitioners require an objective index of dysphonia severity as a means to reliably track treatment outcomes. To ensure ecological validity however, such a measure should survey both sustained vowels and continuous speech. In an earlier study, a multivariate acoustic model referred to as the Acoustic Voice Quality Index (AVQI), consisting…

Voice and swallowing dysfunction as a result of recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis can be improved with vocal fold injections or laryngeal framework surgery. However, denervation atrophy can cause late-term clinical failure. A major determinant of skeletal muscle physiology is myosin heavy chain (MyHC) expression, and previous protein analyses…

This study investigated the relationship between acoustic spectral/cepstral measures and listener severity ratings in normal and disordered voice samples. CAPE-V sentence samples and the vowel /[script]/were elicited from eight normal speakers and 24 patients with varying degrees of dysphonia severity. Samples were analysed for measures of the…

Purpose: This article presents the development of the Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice (CAPE-V) following a consensus conference on perceptual voice quality measurement sponsored by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's Special Interest Division 3, Voice and Voice Disorders. The CAPE-V protocol and recording form were…

In a preliminary study, we documented significant changes in formant transitions associated with successful manual circumlaryngeal treatment (MCT) of muscle tension dysphonia (MTD), suggesting improvement in speech articulation. The present study explores further the effects of MTD on vowel articulation by means of additional vowel acoustic…

Vocal demands of teaching are considerable and these challenges are greater for choral directors who depend on the voice as a musical and instructive instrument. The purpose of this study was to (1) examine choral directors' vocal condition using a modified Voice Handicap Index (VHI), and (2) determine the extent to which the major variables…

Purpose: The Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice (CAPE-V) was developed to provide a protocol and form for clinicians to use when assessing the voice quality of adults with voice disorders (Kempster, Gerratt, Verdolini Abbott, Barkmeier-Kramer, & Hillman, 2009). This study examined the reliability and the empirical validity of the…

Psychogenic dysphonia refers to the loss of voice, in the absence of apparent structural or neurological pathology. It is a disorder seen more often in women and is usually associated with significant life events and emotional difficulties that may lead to conflict over speaking. Therapeutic interventions in voice disorders recommend the adoption…

Purpose: The purpose of this experiment was to assess the ability of an acoustic model composed of both time-based and spectral-based measures to track change following voice disorder treatment and to serve as a possible treatment outcomes measure. Method: A weighted, four-factor acoustic algorithm consisting of shimmer, pitch sigma, the ratio of…

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Purpose: To determine if respiratory and laryngeal function during spontaneous speaking were different for teachers with voice disorders compared with teachers without voice problems. Method: Eighteen teachers, 9 with and 9 without voice disorders, were included in this study. Respiratory function was measured with magnetometry, and laryngeal…

Purpose: To assess the effectiveness of vocal hygiene education (VHE) and voice production therapy (VP) in altering patient perception of vocal handicap in adult women with benign, bilateral phonotraumatic vocal fold lesions and the role of adherence in that perception. Method: Sixty-two women were randomly assigned to 6 weeks of VP (n = 31) or…

Although perceptual studies indicate the likelihood of voice disorders in persons with stroke, there have been few objective instrumental studies of voice dysfunction in dysarthria following stroke. This study reports automatic analysis of sustained vowel phonation for 61 speakers with stroke. The results show: (1) men with stroke and healthy…

Purpose: To explore the existence of genetic effects as well as the interaction between potential genetic effects and a voice-demanding occupation on dysphonia. Method: One thousand seven hundred and twenty-eight Finnish twins (555 male; 1,173 female) born between 1961 and 1989 completed a questionnaire concerning vocal symptoms and occupation.…