Derived Nasalance Measures of Nasality for Sentences in Children with Repaired Cleft Lip and Palate

Abstract

Context: Hypernasality is dominant characteristic of speech exhibited by individuals with cleft lip and palate. Hypernasality can be assessed by subjective and objective methods, Nasometer is one of the instrument widely used as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool to estimate nasality. Nasometer provides nasalance values and other two new derived nasalance measures. Aim: The aim of the present study is to explore the use of derived nasalance measures in differentiating the children with repaired cleft lip and palate (RCLP) with respect to severity and also from control group. Settings and design: Institutional setup and standard group’s comparison design. Methods and material: The study considered ninety children equally divided into three groups. Group Ia included children with repaired cleft lip and palate (RCLP) exhibiting mild hypernasal and group Ib included children with RCLP exhibiting moderate to severe hypernasal, and group II is typically developing age and gender matched children. The children with RCLP were divided into groups based on perceptual evaluation of hypernasality using a standardized four point rating scale. Nasometer II was used to measure the nasalance values, nasalance distance and ratio for oral and nasal sentences. Statistical analysis: SPSS, Descriptive statistics and Multivariate analysis (MANOVA) were used to analyze the data. Results: Increased nasalance value was seen in children with moderate to hypernasal than mild hypernasal and control group. The derived nasalance measures (nasalance distance and nasalance ratio) calculated from mean nasalance were significantly differentiating the children with RCLP based on severity and from the typically developing children. Conclusions: The new nasalance measures can be used potentially in clinical scenario and may be explored across the various methodological conditions to further evaluate the efficacy of these measures.