After collecting all the data and analyzing her results, Angélique Remacle was able to accomplish her goal of defining standards and providing average values. From now on, if a teacher consults for voice disorder and clinicians cannot determine the cause of the problem, they can measure their patient's vocal load using the researcher’s proposed standards as a benchmark.

Kindergarten, a more vocally demanding working environment 

The second objective of the study was to compare results between the different study groups: kindergarten and elementary school teachers. "The goal was to determine which teachers face a higher occupational risk and experience the greatest vocal demand, in order to understand which group should be the focus of preventative measures," explains Angélique Remacle.

Once again, the results are clear. The number of vibrations and the distance traveled by the vocal folds are greater in kindergarten teachers. There are many different explanations for this, and background noise is one of the main causes. In a kindergarten class, activities include songs like nursery rhymes or educational games such as arts and crafts with manipulation of objects. Students also move around more in a kindergarten classroom than they do in elementary school. The greater the background noise, the more the teacher will need to raise her voice to speak and be heard. And since children in kindergarten rely largely on oral language, instructions are given verbally rather than in writing - which explains why kindergarten teachers have a heavier vocal load. Lastly, teachers tend to mimic their students. The younger the child, the higher-pitched their voice tends to be. And since kindergarten teachers are surrounded by young children, they tend to copy their students’ vocal frequencies and use a higher-pitched voice than elementary school teachers. Reduction in background noise is thus one of the most effective ways of minimizing voice overuse. Therapists also suggest using a microphone to amplify the voice.

The researcher also brings up gaps in training programs for teachers, whose voice is their primary communication tool and the way they transmit knowledge. "There are no classes to train teachers on how to use their voices," she laments. "As a rule, we don't provide teachers with explanations of vocal hygiene, how the voice works, and the best vocal techniques to use in order to avoid problems." Familiarizing teachers with voice anatomy and physiology would allow them to become aware of the right vocal gestures to use and would reduce the incidence of voice disorders. But before any of these changes are made to teacher training programs, management of education programs must become aware of the problem and what's at stake; this is the main purpose of Angélique Remacle's study. And she's not stopping there; she now hopes to study other groups of educators such as secondary school teachers,  music teachers, gym teachers, language teachers, etc., since she believes their vocal load will differ depending on the field in which they teach.