The Effect of Vowels on the Nasalance Values in Kannada Speaking Preschoolers with Repaired Cleft of Lip and Palate

Abstract

Nasalance value has been reported to be influenced by age, gender, stimulus type and the language spoken by the individual. Hencethe current study was aimed at investigating the nasalance value of 3 to 5 year old native Kannada speaking children with repaired cleft of lip and palate (RCLP) and to compares it withtypically developing children (TDC). Twenty children with RCLP were considered for the study who were equally grouped into 3–4 year and 4-5 year old group. Further equal number of age and gender matched TDC children were considered as the control group. Nasalance value for the prolonged phonation of vowels /a/ /i/ and /u/ was collected from each child using Nasometer 6450. The data thus obtained was subjected to appropriate statistical analysis. The nasalence value was compared with in and across groups.The results revealed that vowel /i/ had the highest nasalance value followed by /u/ and /a/ in children with RCLP. However, in the TDC group vowel /i/ had the highest nasalance but naslance of /a/ and /u/ was not statistically significant. The reasons for the same are discussed