Effect of a Training Module on Voice Quality Features on the Accuracy of Student Perception of Those Features and on Student Self-Efficacy for Clinically Working with People Who Have Voice Disorders

Speech-language pathology (SLP) students and clinicians have reported low self-efficacy, or confidence, in their ability to make auditory ratings of voice quality features. A training program for rating voice quality features may provide SLP students and clinicians the opportunity to practice making ratings on voice quality features. This practice should result in SLP increased self-efficacy for this task. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between students' confidence in their ratings and the reliability of their ratings of vocal roughness and breathiness. In this experimental, two group pre- and post-test study, 60 first-year graduate students completed two pre- and post-tests: one of their ability to rate the voice quality features of breathiness and roughness and the other of their self-efficacy for completing 14 clinical tasks with voice clients. A group of 26 of them also completed a voice quality feature training module. For the voice quality rating pre-test, post-test and training module, data were collected on the accuracy of the participants' voice quality feature ratings in comparison to expert opinion for breathiness and roughness and the time participants spent making their voice quality ratings. Self-efficacy percentages for working with voice clients were collected from the pre- and post-test on the 14 clinical tasks. All of the participants' self-efficacy ratings increased for all of the 14 clinical tasks after one semester of graduate school. However, the participants' accuracy in voice quality features did not improve after completing the training module. Since there were no differences between the two groups, the training module did not affect the participants' self-efficacy for working with voice clients or their skill at rating voice quality features. In the future, the goal of the training program needs to be more rigorous. Completion of the training module should require improved performance on rating voice quality features of the voice samples.