PURPOSE:
to correlate nasalance scores and speech nasality of operated unilateral cleft lip and palate children.
METHODS:
this prospective study involved auditory perceptual identification of nasality by three experienced speech-language pathologists who judged recorded phrases produced by 79 children (mean age of 6y5m), all speakers of Brazilian Portuguese. Nasalance measures obtained simultaneously to audio recordings were also analyzed. The speech samples included two sentences, one with [p] and another with [b] sounds. Inter-judgment agreement for the total (N=158) phrases judged by the speech-language pathologists was obtained (78.5% for [p] and 93.5% for [b]). Intra-judgment agreement for duplicated sentences was 82% for [p] and 86% for b] sounds. The speech-language pathologists were then instructed to judge individually speech nasality of the 178 phrases using a 4 points scale. Nasalance scores for these 158 phrases were then obtained. Mean speech nasality and nasalance scores were correlated.
RESULTS:
mean values of 1.53 and 1.52 (indicative of mild hypernasality) were obtained for the [p] and [b] phrases, respectively, from perceptual judgments. Mean nasalance scores were 32% ([p] phrase) e 39% ([b] phrase). Although significant, low correlation was found between speech nasality and nasalance scores for the two investigated phrases ([p]; r= 0,31; p=0,004; [b]; r= 0,37;p=0,0007).
CONCLUSION:
mild hypernasality as identified in the speech of children with cleft palate may disfavor correlation findings between speech nasality and nasalance scores. Longer speech stimuli and samples including higher degrees of hypernasality are recommended for future studies.
Cleft Palate; Speech Disorders; Child
