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The Use Of Chant Therapy Help Increase And Avoid The Symptoms Of Vocal Fatigue

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This study was done on the use of chant therapy to help decrease and avoid the symptoms of vocal fatigue in public school teachers. Vocal fatigue includes two main symptoms; there is a continuous increase in phonatory use and effort and then a loss in phonation. This condition is often recognized in other professional voice users such as singers and actors. However, vocal fatigue in teachers has not been as well known and has only recently been addressed to the public. Reports from public school teachers indicated symptoms of vocal fatigue shortly after they started teaching. Coaches, drama, and music teachers are educators that are more susceptible to vocal fatigue. However, any teacher that has to project and continuously use …show more content…

All four teachers reported vocal fatigue after a few years of teaching. Teachers were excluded from this study if they were already in voice training and if they had any organic or acute vocal pathologies seen on an ear, nose and throat (ENT) evaluation or endoscopic exam. The goal for this study was to use chant therapy to decrease the individuals fatigue by making it a habit for them to use differential muscle activity. To meet this goal the authors focused on finding a normal speaking pitch, increased prosodic accent and a better standard deviation for their fundamental frequencies. A Voice Range Profile (FRP) was used to find a more efficient speaking pitch. The pitch targeted was characterized by being in the individual’s lower range where the largest loudness gain was found in the semitone below it. The individuals were taught this pitch and it was used as the mediation note for chant therapy. The researchers also implemented a placebo therapy. It included the same amount of non-effortful speech as the chant therapy and there were no environmental or behavioral changes implemented. Each individual was paired with another and was told to speak to each other in a normal voice for one hour, which was the same amount of time as the chant therapy. They were then given an end of the session questionnaire and 3 of the 4 subjects stated that they thought the placebo therapy was beneficial. The chant and placebo therapy included six

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