Australian Teachers have a high incidence of voice disorders (Roy et al., 2004) that impact on their quality of life, both professionally and personally. Preventative voice care programs (PVCP) have been designed to promote the use of safe, hygienic voice practice through increased knowledge and practical implementation of behaviour change. A systematic review (Ramos et al., 2022) investigated the efficacy of 12 PVCP in preventing voice disorders in teachers. They found a low efficacy to support program success. Their conclusions indicated the need for more robust research into the development and testing of future PVCP, with clearly defined methodological criteria. The investigators of this presentation completed a scoping review in 2023, to identify the design and implementation features of existing programs. The review found a lack of prospective user input and co-design in existing PVCP. This presentation will present on subsequent research that has systematically explored the views of Australian teachers toward their voice and professional development (PD). The research objectives include gathering teacher’s opinions on voice care and their preferences regarding PD design and implementation. The research followed a qualitative study design which collected the demographic data of participants and facilitated focus groups. Six focus groups were completed with a total of 19 participants. Preliminary descriptive analysis of demographic data reveals that participants included early childhood/kindergarten, primary and high school teachers who worked across South Australia, Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australia and Northern Territory. The thematic analysis of focus group transcripts is in progress, with results to be determined by April 2025. A rigorous thematic analysis approach will be applied to the interview transcripts to identify key themes related to the research objective. It is hoped that the findings from this project will support the continued efforts in designing more robust preventive voice programs for teachers.

Huston, M. N., Puka, I., & Naunheim, M. R. (2024). Prevalence of Voice Disorders in the United States: A National Survey. The Laryngoscope, 134(1), 347–352. https://doi.org/10.1002/lary.30929

Kitzinger, J. (1995). Qualitative Research: Introducing focus groups. BMJ, 311(7000), 299–302. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.311.7000.299
Morgan, D. L. (1996). Focus Groups. Annual Review of Sociology, 22(1), 129–152. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.22.1.129

Ramos, L. de A., Ribeiro, C. J. S., Brasil, C. C. P., & Gama, A. C. C. (2022). The Effectiveness of Vocal Health Programs in the Prevention of Voice Disorders in Teachers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Voice. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2022.09.017

Speech Pathology Australia. (2023). Voice Best Practice Principles Resource. https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/Common/Uploaded%20files/Smart%20Suite/Smart%20Library/dd1ad82c-29b5-49fb-9e8c-4474ed763f65/20191216%20-%20Laryngology-%20Voice%20Best%20Practice%20Principles%20Resource.pdf