Helping Teachers Prevent Vocal Strain

Being a teacher comes with many responsibilities. You might not know that taking care of your voice and vocal cords are some of them! Many instructors and public speakers strain their voices due to the repeated stress put on their vocal cords. Luckily, there are ways to prevent teacher’s vocal strain and ways to rehabilitate your voice with Professional Voice Care Center! 

What Causes Vocal Strain?

If you sound horse, harsh, experiencing pain when speaking, or voice breakage, you may have vocal damage. Vocal strain can be caused by muscle tightness or muscle tension dysphonia. This can occur from being sick, causing a vocal cord injury, excessive talking, and other medical conditions. Voice therapy is one of the treatments for this condition by learning how to correctly power your voice and relax the muscles in your throat.

Why Do Teachers Experience Vocal Strain?

Talking a lot without taking breaks, screaming or shouting, and talking over others in loud environments are all risk factors for vocal strain. As a teacher, you know these are all a part of your daily work activities, especially when working with younger students. The daily occurrences of these habits cause the muscle tightness and tension discussed above, leaving you with a strained voice. If you are dealing with teachers’ vocal strain, there are ways to help it and prevent it as well. 

How to Prevent Teacher’s Vocal Strain

Here are some ways to prevent vocal strain in the classroom:

• Stay hydrated
• Limit intake of alcohol and caffeine
• Use a humidifier 
• Consider using a microphone
• Get adequate rest 
• Don’t smoke
• Avoid Talking in extremes such as screaming or whispering 
• Voice therapy – to learn to speak in a healthy way

How Professional Voice Care Can Help

If a teacher’s vocal strain is an issue for you, we’re here to help! At Professional Voice Care Center, we have a voice therapy program with licensed speech-voice pathologists (vocologists), that can evaluate your vocal function and create a program specially designed for you for vocal rehabilitation therapy. To learn more about our services, click here.