THE CORRELATION BETWEEN DERIVED NASALANCE MEASURES AND PERCEIVED NASALITY IN CHILDREN WITH REPAIRED CLEFT LIP AND PALATE

Context: Velopharyngeal dysfunction (VPD) is one of the associated condition reported in individuals with repaired cleft lip and palate (RCLP) leading to hypernasality. Nasality can be assessed by nasometer through nasalance values. But, mean nasalance values (N) found to be overlapping between individuals with RCLP and normals. To overcome these limitations Nasalance Distance (ND) and Nasalance Ratio (NR) are derived based on nasalance range. Aims: The study is aimed to evaluate, correlate and compare acoustical (N, ND & NR) and perceptual measures of nasality between the children with RCLP and control group. Settings and Design: Institutional setup and standard group comparison design Methods and Material: The study included fifteen children with RCLP ranging from 6 to 11 years and the control group consists of age and gender matched 15 typically developing children. Four point standard rating scale was used to rate the hypernasality by three speech language pathologists (SLP’s) and Nasometer was used to measure the mean and derived nasalance scores for vowels and sentences in Kannada. Statistical analysis: SPSS, Cronbach’s Alpha test, multivariate analysis and Pearson’s product movement correlation were used to analyze the data. Results: Significant increase in the mean nasalance value and NR was seen in children with RCLP than the control group, whereas ND was contrary. ND was highly correlated with perceived nasality than N. The NR of sentences shows high negative correlation. Conclusions: The measures based on range of nasalance can be adapted to the routine clinical examinations for better correlation with perceived nasality.