Teaching · Speech & Language

Listen closely, write it down, and know when it is a doctor’s call.

Rate pitch, loudness, roughness, breathiness, strain, breaks and nasal resonance against what you expect for the student. Add how long the change has lasted, how the voice is used and whether talking hurts. The form lists what differs and puts the signs that need a doctor’s look at the top.

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Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Speech & Language toolkit, $79 for 72 items.

The voice observation form

Records use the student’s initials or a code and stay in this browser. The ratings are your impression as a listener. The example is made up.

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What you get

Teaching · Speech & Language$12 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
A voice observation for each student: the tasks heard, eight features rated as expected, slightly or clearly different, how long a change has lasted, voice habits, pain, swallowing and the student’s awareness, and the next step. The summary lists the features that differ and the signs that call for a doctor before any voice therapy.
Who it is for
School speech-language pathologists screening voice or responding to a teacher’s concern about a hoarse or nasal voice; school nurses working alongside them.
Format
Browser form. Several saved observations; printed with the summary or as a blank observation form; CSV with one row per observation; export and import a file.
Access
$12 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Speech & Language toolkit ($79) and the Teaching Suite pass ($199), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Speech & Language space in Caveat Teaching.
Support
Questions about an order, access or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.
Since August
Drawn for this page. How a voice is used, and for how long it has sounded different, matter as much as how it sounds today.

How to use it

  1. Start a record with the student’s initials or a code. Note whether the student has a cold or sore throat today.
  2. Listen to conversation, counting, a held “ah” and a louder voice, and mark the tasks.
  3. Rate each of the eight features against what you expect for this student. Use Could not judge rather than guessing.
  4. Ask how long the voice has sounded this way, how it is used, and whether talking hurts.
  5. Read the flags, set the next step and print the form for the family or the team.

Start an observation

What the form is for, and what it is not

Medical examination comes first

A hoarse, breathy or strained voice can come from vocal fold nodules, swelling, a cyst, reflux, a paralysis or, rarely, a growth, and only a look at the vocal folds can tell which. ASHA’s guidance is that people with voice problems are examined by a physician, usually an ear, nose and throat doctor, before voice therapy begins. The form flags a difference lasting more than a month, pain, and trouble swallowing or breathing for that reason.

Resonance is different

Too much sound through the nose can come from how the soft palate closes, including after a cleft palate repair; too little often comes from a blocked nose. Both are noted separately from voice quality and lead to their own questions.

A listener’s impression

The ratings describe what you heard on one day. They are not measured and not compared with norms, and a cold can change a voice for a week or two. Records use a code, never a name, and stay in this browser.

Sources

  1. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Practice Portal: Voice Disorders; Resonance Disorders (asha.org/practice-portal), including the recommendation of a medical examination before voice treatment.
  2. Stachler, R. J., et al. (2018). Clinical practice guideline: Hoarseness (dysphonia) (update). Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, 158(1 Suppl), S1–S42.
  3. Boone, D. R., McFarlane, S. C., Von Berg, S. L., and Zraick, R. I. (2020). The Voice and Voice Therapy (10th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
  4. Kempster, G. B., et al. (2009). Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice: Development of a standardized clinical protocol. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 18(2), 124–132, on the features listeners rate (the page does not reproduce the protocol).
  5. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act regulations, 34 CFR 300.302 (screening is not evaluation).

The example student is made up. The form records a listener’s impressions; it does not diagnose, measure or treat a voice problem, and it holds no state rules. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.