Teachers need to take care of their voices

New research suggests that teachers place unique demands on their voices, and that they may tend to gut it out, not seeking help until too late. Teacher-training programs ignore the subject of voice care, except at music schools--and even then, the knowledge is sometimes outdated. To top it off, classroom acoustics are often poor. Teachers are about twice as likely as nonteachers to suffer from a voice problem at some point - nearly 58 percent vs. less than 29 percent, according to a 2004 study in the Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research.

To read The Philadelphia Inquirer article, click here.