Chant Therapy For Treating Vocal Fatigue Among Public School Teachers

Abstract

Voice therapies have proven to be an effective method of helping patients avoid the symptoms of vocal fatigue. This study assesses the effect of a chant-based therapy on self-perceptive symptoms of vocal fatigue. A recitational pattern was selected and a therapy regime created from important features of this chant. It was administered along with a placebo therapy to four public school teachers who were prone to vocal fatigue. A two-hour fatiguing task was administered pre- and post-therapies, during which self-evaluative measures of "vocal effort" and "voice quality" were made by the subjects. The plots of these measures were used for the purpose of determining the effects of the chant therapy. Based on changes in the subjects' responses to the fatiguing task after the delivery of the chant therapy, we concluded that this form of functional therapy has the potential to be effective in the remediation of vocal fatigue.