Is There an Effect of Dysphonic Teachers’ Voices on Children’s Processing of Spoken Language? *Jemma Rogerson and †Barbara Dodd Manchester and Tyne, United Kingdom Summary: There is a vast body of literature on the causes, prevalence, implications, and issues of vocal dysfunction in teachers. However, the educa- tional effect of teacher vocal impairment is largely unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of impaired voice quality on children’s processing of spoken language. One hundred and seven children (age range, 9.2 to 10.6, mean 9.8, SD 3.76 months) listened to three video passages, one read in a control voice, one in a mild dysphonic voice, and one in a severe dysphonic voice. After each video passage, children were asked to answer six questions, with multiple-choice answers. The results indicated that children’s perceptions of speech across the three voice qualities differed, regardless of gender, IQ, and school attended. Performance in the control voice passages was better than performance in the mild and severe dysphonic voice passages. No difference was found between performance in the mild and severe dysphonic voice passages, highlighting that any form of vocal impairment is detrimental to children’s speech processing and is therefore likely to have a negative educational effect. These findings, in light of the high rate of vocal dysfunction in teachers, further support the implementation of specific voice care education for those in the teaching profession. Key Words: Teachers—Children—Vocal impairment—Speech percep- tion—Comprehension—Education. INTRODUCTION One of the main aims of teachers is to deliver knowledge: in doing this, they use their voices as Accepted for publication February 27, 2004. From the *South Manchester University Hospitals NHS Trust, Manchester, United Kingdom; †University of Newcastle, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United Kingdom. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Jemma Rogerson, Speech and Language Therapist, Speech and Lang- uage Therapy Department, Wythenshawe Hospital, Southmoor Road, Wythenshawe, Manchester, M23 9LT, United Kingdom. E-mail: jemmarogerson@hotmail.com Journal of Voice, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 47–60 0892-1997/$30.00  2005 The Voice Foundation doi:10.1016/j.jvoice.2004.02.007 47 the primary tool of their trade. Without a well- functioning and enduring voice, interaction with students is severely impaired, and professional duties cannot be fulfilled. The study reported here investigates the effect of disordered voice on chil- dren’s speech perception. Prevalence A wealth of evidence suggests that teaching is a high-risk occupation for voice disorders and that this health problem may have significant work-re- lated and economic effects. As a group of professional voice users, teachers experience a high rate of vocal dysfunction, 1–4 pri- marily because of the excessive demands on their voices and the unfavourable acoustic environment