Cedar Rapids Gazette, IA
12-15-07
Teachers can learn to minimize voice strain
IOWA CITY — Karen Nagle Bagby didn't need to raise her voice, even though it
competed with music, laughter and squeaking shoes on the gymnasium floor of
Hoover Elementary.
Instead, posed as "mama skunk," Nagle Bagby incited chaos, chasing her
students through a replica of Paul Bunyan's forest. As the kids' energy reached a
feverish pitch, the physical education teacher demanded their attention with a
microphone wired to an amplification device at her waist.
"I once had a lot of volume. I had a strong voice, and it worked fine for me for a
while," said Nagle Bagby of Solon. "And kind of like a car, it wore out."
After having taught about 12 classes a day for 28 years, she has put significant
strain on that voice.
She is among 10 others in the Iowa City school district who teach music and
physical education using amplification devices to cut back on voice injuries.
"Teachers speak all day long, and if you think of all the muscles involved, healthy
voice use is essential," said Judy Leigh-Johnson, who teaches about voice in the
University of Iowa Theatre Arts department.
Unlike other voice-heavy careers, such as singing and acting — in which
professionals know more about caring for their "bread and butter" — most
teachers never learned to protect their most important classroom tool, said Julie
Ostrem, a UI program associate in speech pathology and audiology.
"This impacts the teachers' health, but there's kind of a double whammy," Ostrem
said. "Many of these symptoms also affect the child being able to hear their
teacher."
Teachers are 32 times more likely to report physical discomfort when speaking,
or a tired, weak or deeper voice, according to The Voice Academy, a Web site
developed and run by the UI.
And research shows teachers — making up only 4 percent of the U.S. work force
— are at high risk for voice disorders, representing 20 percent of patients.
"A school teacher is like the marathon runner of voices," Ostrem said. "Even if
one little habit or way of speaking is off, that's magnified many times."
Elizabeth Brown of Iowa City uses an amplification system called the "chatter
vox" to teach music at Longfellow Elementary.
"I talk the whole time, unless we're making music. And even then, I'm usually
saying things here and there and singing along," she said. "It's hard to
understand how valuable your voice is as a teacher and how frustrating it can be
to lose."
Brown, 32, suffered from calluses on her vocal cords, called nodules, in college.
For that reason, and because she was a music student, she learned a bit about
vocal care before she began teaching.
But neither the UI, Iowa State University nor University of Northern Iowa
requires elementary education majors to take courses on voice care or disorders,
according to department Web sites.
Meanwhile, Speech Pathology and Audiology, Theatre Arts and Music programs
at the UI offer a variety of courses on the topic, most of which are exclusive to
those majors. Leigh-Johnson teaches about two such classes a semester for
theater students.
"You cannot be an actor without your voice, unless you're going to be a mime
artist," Leigh-Johnson joked. "You need healthy vocal folds, articulation and
resonance."
But not all professions dependent on the voice stress that importance, LeighJohnson said. She noted a need for such emphasis in education and said she
teaches a public speaking class open to all majors that focuses on healthy use.
The Voice Academy, too, exists to connect school teachers with research and
tips to ward against strain and soothe already irritated voices, said Ostrem, who
was the project leader for the Web site (www.uiowa.edu/~shcvoice/) that
launched in 2003.
Such tips include clearing tension in one's shoulders and chest and warming up
vocal cords by humming in the shower, allowing moisture to relax one's muscles.
Nagle Bagby said she uses some of those techniques now. She saw a doctor in
2001 after realizing that overuse had affected her pitch and caused fatigue to the
point she couldn't speak or sing.
"And I loved to sing," she said.