Factors Affecting the Speech Nasality in Children with Cleft Palate

Abstract: Cleft palate is a congenital deformity affecting the speech production skills of children born th with it. Pakistan has the 4 largest number of cleft births in the world. The gender values, family history and age greatly affect the speech nasality in children with cleft palate. Objective: To determine the factors affecting the speech nasality in children with cleft palate. Methods: A total of 120 children with cleft palate, ages ranging from 8 to 12 years were selected by crosssectional purposive sampling method, selected from Clapp General Hospital, Lahore. Demographic data were collected in terms of age, gender, family history and cousin marriage, by modifying Temple Street Scale. SPSS version 21.0 was used for data analysis. Results: The descriptive analysis of age revealed that highest frequency of speech nasality was at 9 years (35%). The gender distribution indicates increased percentage of speech nasality (62.5%) in males than females. The frequency of children having family histories was 99 (82.5%). The frequency of consanguineous marriages was higher (83.3%) than the non-consanguineous (16.7%). Conclusions: It was concluded that gender, age and genetics greatly affect the speech nasality of individuals with cleft palate. So, these points must be considered seriously because prevention is Factors Affecting the Speech Nasality in Children with Cleft Palate better than cure. Key words: Cleft palate, Speech, Nasality, Temple Street Scale, Consanguineous, Genetics