An Online Telepractice Model for the Prevention of Voice Disorders in Vocally Healthy Student Teachers Evaluated by a Smartphone Application

Abstract

This article describes the Global Voice Prevention Model (GVPM) facilitated with student teachers at West Chester University and the VoiceEvalU8 smartphone application (app) used to assess the effectiveness of the GVPM. Twenty-one participants completed 1 of 3 conditions (i.e., in-person GVPM, telepractice GVPM, and control). The in-person and telepractice conditions ran for 4 weeks during fall 2016, with 1 week dedicated to vocal education and vocal hygiene and 3 weeks spent in vocal training. The control condition ran for 1 week and included only vocal education and vocal hygiene. The VoiceEvalU8 app was used at pre- and post-condition twice a day for 5 days to record acoustic, perceptual, and aerodynamic voice measures. The study is ongoing; therefore, preliminary acoustic results for fundamental frequency (F0) and jitter% are presented from pre- to post-condition. During spring 2017, the participants were student teaching and using the VoiceEvalU8 app to record the voice measures before and after teaching all day. A new group of participants will be enrolled fall 2017 for selection into 1 of the 3 conditions and then continue on to student teaching spring 2018.