Voice Problems Trouble Teachers

A hoarse voice is an endemic problem in professions who use their voices a lot including preachers, journalists, lawyers, and especially teachers. In the general population, 1 in 4 report a voice problem at some point in their life. Among teachers, 47 percent report some degree of voice abnormality on any given day; 20 percent of teachers report missing work due to voice problems, and 1-in-10 teachers has been forced to leave the profession by voice woes.

Even in Fauquier County, every year there are a few teachers I place on short-term disability due to the severity of their voice disorder.

Read a news article on this subject here.

Reference:
Voice Problems of Classroom Teachers: Incidence, Symptoms, and Associated Factors http://www.drwag.com/939.html (Presented at American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual convention, Philadelphia, 2004)

Prevalence of voice disorders in teachers and the general population. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2004 Apr;47(2):281-93.