title: Observations of the relationship between noise exposure and preschool teacher voice usage in day-care center environments.
abstract: Although the relationship between noise exposure and vocal behavior (the Lombard effect) is well established, actual vocal behavior in the workplace is still relatively unexamined. The first purpose of this study was to investigate correlations between noise level and both voice level and voice average fundamental frequency (F₀) for a population of preschool teachers in their normal workplace. The second purpose was to study the vocal behavior of each teacher to investigate whether individual vocal behaviors or certain patterns could be identified. Voice and noise data were obtained for female preschool teachers (n=13) in their workplace, using wearable measurement equipment. Correlations between noise level and voice level, and between voice level and F₀, were calculated for each participant and ranged from 0.07 to 0.87 for voice level and from 0.11 to 0.78 for F₀. The large spread of the correlation coefficients indicates that the teachers react individually to the noise exposure. For example, some teachers increase their voice-to-noise level ratio when the noise is reduced, whereas others do not.
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, The Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. Fredric.Lindstrom@amm.gu.se
authors.forename: Fredric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lindstrom
authors.forename: Kerstin Persson
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Waye
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Södersten
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McAllister
authors.forename: Sten
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ternström
mesh_terms: D000162:Acoustics / Q000295:instrumentation; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002656:Child Day Care Centers; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004867:Equipment Design; D005178:Faculty; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008875:Middle Aged; D009622:Noise; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D010699:Phonation; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013997:Time Factors; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014833:Voice Quality; D055815:Young Adult