Teachers in a professional and non-professional context: objective and subjective analysis of the two aspects of articulation and posture

Abstract

The articulation and the posture determine the vocal tract configuration, defining the production of voice. The aim of the experiment was to characterize the vocal profile of teachers; with or without vocal complaints; describe and compare through objective and subjective analysis, the behaviors of articulation and posture. Therefore, a protocol was applied and the teachers were audio-video-recorded inside and outside their professional context. The images of articulation were analyzed objectively (software Image Tool); and subjectively (being the posture observed by 4 judges). Based on the collected data, it is suggested that the growth of articulation is related to the process of literacy and not to a vocal disturbance prevention. This, associated to the postural change, may lead to the appearance or aggravation of a vocal problem. The proposed methodology allows other applications in Speech Pathology.