Classroom acoustics for vocal health of elementary school teachers

Proc Meet Acoust. 2015;137(4):2392. doi: 10.1121/1.4920709. Epub 2015 Apr 27.

Abstract

School teachers have an elevated risk of voice problems due to vocal demands in the workplace. ANSI SI2.60-2002 provides a standard for classroom acoustics, but it focuses primarily on students and unoccupied classroom settings. This presentation explores a preliminary study of six elementary school teachers that included measurements of architectural acoustics parameters and noise-levels of their classrooms, as well as their speech levels and fundamental frequencies over the course of a school day. The measurement methods and speech trends are discussed for the various cases, demonstrating that classroom acoustics standards may benefit from greater attention to teacher vocal health.