Emirati teachers' perceptions of voice handicap

Abstract

Objectives. The purpose of the study was to explore Emirati teachers’ perceptions of voice handicap and to analyze their acoustic characteristics to determine whether acoustic measures of teachers’ voice would verify their perceptions of voice handicap. Methods. 66 Emirati school teachers (33 males and 33 females, with different years of teaching experience and age) and 100 control participants (50 males and 50 females) underwent vocal assessment that included the Voice Handicap Index (VHI-Arab) and acoustic measures (F0, Jitter%, Shimmer%, SNR). Results. Significant differences between the teachers’ group scores and the control group scores on the following subscales of VHI-Arab: physical (p = 0.006), emotional (p = 0.004)) and in the total score of the test (p = 0.002) were tested. No significant differences were found among teachers in the three VHI subscales, and the total score regarding gender (functional p = 0.307; physical p = 0.341; emotional p = 0.126; and total p = 0.184), age (functional p = 0.972; physical p = 0.525; emotional p = 0.772; and total p = 0.848), and years of teaching experience (functional p = 0.319; physical p = 0.619; emotional p = 0.926; and total p = 0.638). Significant differences between the teacher’s group and the control group in terms of three acoustic measures: F0= (p= 0.000), Shimmer% (p= 0.000), and SNR (p=0.000) were investigated. Significant differences were found among female and male teachers in F0 (p = 0.00) and SNR (p = 0.007). As for teachers’ age, significant differences were found in SNR (p = 0.028). Teachers’ years of experience did not show significant differences in any of the acoustic measures.