The Assessment of the Nasality of Cleft Palate Speech with the Linguistic Approach

Abstract

Nasality, an abnormal voice quality, is generally considered the major deviation in cleft palate speech. The assessment of this problem is necessary for the appropriate management. The study aimed to design the standard speech test to measure nasality : hypernasality, hyponasality (cul-de-sac) and nasal emission. The test was directed to the production of the phonetic criterion for selecting words that evidence the problem. The hypernasality and hyponasality are judged in three levels : sound, word, and connected speech. But the nasal emission is separately judged from nasality in only two levels : sound and word. The speech test was also analyzed by nasometer to check whether it could measure nasality of cleft palate speech and the result agreed well with purpose of the test. This suggests that test can be clinically used as a standard pattern to identify nasality.