Difference In Nasalance Scores Research Articles

Differences in nasalance scores obtained with different Nasometer headsets

ABSTRACT The goal of the present research study was to investigate possible differences in nasalance scores between different Nasometer headgears. Frequency response characteristics of microphone pairs in a Nasometer model 6200, a model 6450 and two model 6500 headsets were compared using long-term average spectra of white noise and multi-speaker babble signals. Prerecorded sound files from a male and a female speaker were used to record nasalance scores with the four Nasometer headsets and to calculate cumulative absolute differences within and between the headsets. The main outcome measures were the cumulative absolute differences between the decibel (dB) values in the frequency bins from 300 to 750 Hz for the nasal and oral channels of each microphone pair. Cumulative absolute differences between nasalance scores of repeated stimuli within and across Nasometer headsets were tabulated. Results showed that cumulative absolute differences for the frequency range 300–750 Hz were between 6.58 and 7.68 dB. Within headsets, 95.6% to 100% of measurements of all four Nasometer headsets were within 3 nasalance points, although test–retest differences of up to 6 nasalance points were found. Between headsets, 56.1% to 98.9% of measurements were within 3 nasalance points, with the single largest difference of 8 nasalance points. In conclusion, differences between repeated nasalance scores obtained with the same and different headsets were noted. Clinicians should allow a margin of error of ±6 to 8 nasalance points when interpreting scores from different Nasometer headsets.

Nasalance scores in Spanish-speaking children aged 3 to 5 years according to gender, age, and vowel load

Nasometry is a non-invasive, easy-to-use technique that provides objective data regarding the amount of acoustic energy in the oral and nasal cavities during speech. The goal of this study is to create a Spanish passage and determine normative nasalance values for typical Spanish-speaking children, 3 to 5 years of age, that allows us to compare the values in children of the same age who present hypernasality and velopharyngeal dysfunction. Second, to determine if there are significant differences in nasalance scores based on age or gender. Third, to test the impact of vowel load on nasalance scores. Data were collected from 130 children with no known speech, language, or hearing disorder. Participants were organized into three groups according to age. A nasometric assessment protocol for Spanish was developed based on an adaptation of the MacKay-Kummer Simplified Nasometric Assessment Procedures-Revised (SNAP-R; 2005). All participants were required to repeat the speech stimuli. Data were collected using the icSpeech nasometer and were recorded on EXCEL 365 sheets for further analysis. Normative data is now available for a Spanish version of the SNAP-R Test. No significant differences were found between the genders, but significant differences were found based on age. It was also found that a load of high and anterior vowels, especially the phoneme /i/, increased nasalance scores. This protocol created passages in Spanish that mimic the passages of the SNAP-R Test in English. These Spanish passages were normed for Spanish-speaking children. This study confirms that high vowels result in higher nasalance values and therefore, the vowel composition of a specific passage determines the nasalance score, not the language of the passage.

Nasalance scores of Thai cleft palate children using the Thai Simplified Nasometric Assessment Procedures Test (Thai SNAP Test)

Background: Nasometry in children with cleft lip and/ or palate (CLP) aged 4-6 years is necessary for diagnosis and planning treatments to promote decreasing velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) or resonance disorders that affect good speech intelligibility, prevent compensatory errors and other speech and language problems. Most Thai nasometric speech stimuli are passages suitable for literate patients. Using nasometric passages in young children who cannot read takes a long time to complete and gives unreliable nasalance scores. Due to the limitations, The Thai Simplified Nasometric Assessment Procedures Test (the Thai SNAP Test) was developed and assessed for validity and reliability, revealing that the Thai SNAP Test is proper for evaluating the speech resonance of illiterate patients. However, there is no study on nasometry in children with repaired cleft lip and/ or palate (RCLP) using the Thai SNAP Test. Objectives: To study nasalance scores between the control (non-cleft) group and the RCLP group assessed by the Thai SNAP Test and to describe the influential factors that affected nasalance scores. Materials and methods: The subjects were Thai children aged 4-7. The two groups of children were the RCLP and the control groups, and 36 children in each group. Nasalance scores were measured by a Nasometer II (model 6450). The child was asked to repeat 25 speech stimuli from the Thai SNAP Test, and then the scores were computed using a t-test or Mann-Whitney U test, depend on data distribution. The mean difference in nasalance scores between the two groups and the 95% Confident Interval (95% CI) were analyzed by the two-sample t-test with equal variances and the bootstrap confidence interval method, respectively. Results: The nasalance scores of the RCLP group were significantly higher than the control group (p<0.05) when using high-pressure oral speech stimuli. However, using nasal speech stimuli, the RCLP group’s nasalance scores were significantly lower than the control group (p<0.05), except for nasal syllable repetition (/na/ and /ni/), which did not find a significant difference (p≥0.05). This study emphasized that influential factors for the difference in the nasalance scores between the two groups were abnormal structures and functions articulators, especially the velopharyngeal port that was affected by the CLP, which caused resonance disorders, misarticulations, voice disorders, obstruction in the vocal tract, and hearing impairment. However, the phonological features used in the speech stimulus caused the difference in the mean nasalance scores of the same group. Conclusion: The trends in nasalance scores suggested that the Thai SNAP Test could identify speech resonance disorders in Thai children aged 4-7. The speech and language pathologist (SLP) or evaluator should consider factors influencing the nasalance scores. For accurately diagnosing or evaluating the progression of treatments, nasalance scores from Nasometer should be applied together with other information from various methods or instruments.

Possible Association between Differences in Nasalance Scores and Early Spread of COVID-19 Based on Linguistic Analysis

Objective: The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020 after more than 118,000 cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had been reported in 114 countries. Our study analyzed the cumulative incidence rate based on WHO data starting with the first confirmed patient until the peak of transmission. In addition, the numerical values of nasometry from normal subjects were quantified to analyze the linguistic features.Methods: This study consisted of two main methodologies including a meta-analysis based on nasometry data involving normal adults and cumulative incidence rate based on WHO data. In addition, the numerical values of nasometry from normal subjects were quantified to analyze the linguistic features.Results: The pooled overall mean differences (MDs) for oral text nasalance among linguistic families were 14.655 (95% confidence interval [CI], 7.986–21.324) in Arabic, 24.441 (95% CI, 17.920–30.962) in Chinese, 14.964 (95% CI, 13.677–16.251) in European, and 11.437 (95% CI, 9.880–12.994) in Ural-Altaic. The pooled overall MDs for cumulative incidence rate of COVID-19 were 190.3 (95% CI, 56.10–324.60) in Arabic, 283.20 (95% CI, 1.80–564.60) in European, and 5.70 (95% CI, 4.90–6.60) in Ural-Altaic. Correlation between oral nasalance score and cumulative incidence was significant (P=0.0004).Conclusion: Our study showed the possible association between language characteristics and early spread of COVID-19. Further studies are needed to validate our outcomes based on various epidemiologic and behavioral factors including mask wearing.

Changes in Nasalance and Velopharyngeal Function Following Conventional Le Fort I and Distraction Osteogenesis Using Perceptual and Instrumental Assessment

Objective: The objective of this study was to quantify the changes in nasalance and velopharyngeal function in individuals with repaired cleft palate who underwent conventional Le Fort I (LFI) and Distraction Osteogenesis (DO). This study will also examine changes relative to secondary factors of age, cleft type, and previous speech surgery. Methods: This retrospective study included 19 patients who underwent LFI and 24 patients who underwent DO at a tertiary level pediatric hospital from 2011 to 2019. All patients had repaired cleft palate and were between 7 and 18 years of age. Pre- and post-operative speech assessment was completed before and after surgery. Results: There was a significant increase in nasalance scores for the oral sentences of 12.9% for the LFI group ( P = .006) and 17.9% for the DO group ( P < .001). A significant difference in nasalance scores between patients with and without previous speech surgery in the LFI group. Conclusions: Findings may aid surgeons and speech pathologists in informing patients about the potential increase in nasalance following LFI or DO. Findings may indicate that timing of speech surgery is more favorable before LFI, but not influential for individuals undergoing DO.

Covering Nasometer Microphones with Plastic Wrap for Infection Control Increases Retest Variability of Nasalance Scores.

The Nasometer is a popular instrument for the acoustic assessment of nasality. In light of the currently ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic, clinicians may have wondered about the infection control procedures for the Nasometer. The current research investigated whether nasalance scores are affected if the Nasometer 6450 microphone casings are covered with a material such as rolled polyvinyl chloride household wrap. For the experiment, pre-recorded sound files from two speakers were played back through a set of small loudspeakers. Nasalance scores from two baselines and three wrap cover conditions were compared. While there was no statistically significant condition effect in a repeated-measures analysis of variance, the within-condition cumulative differences in nasalance scores were 2 for the initial baseline, 42 for wrap cover 1, 24 for wrap cover 2, 78 for wrap cover 3, and 8 for the final baseline. Mean differences between the wrap cover and the baseline conditions were 8.2 to 15.3 times larger, and cumulative differences were 8.3 to 16.6 times larger than between the two baselines. Based on the higher cumulative and mean differences observed, clinicians should not cover Nasometer microphones with household wrap as this increases variability of nasalance scores. Since there is evidence that the COVID-19 virus can survive for some time on metal surfaces, clinicians should be mindful of the fact that the Nasometer microphone housings can only be cleaned superficially and should be handled with gloves to minimize any possible risk of touch transfer of pathogens to the next speaker or the clinician.

Nasalance Scores as a Function of Skeletal Malocclusion of English-Speaking Adults in the North Indian Population

Objective: The objective of this study is quantitative assessment of nasalance for skeletal Class I (normative values), Class II, and III malocclusion in the English language for the North Indian population and to compare the normative values with the nasalance scores obtained from individuals with skeletal Class II and III malocclusion and to evaluate the normative values as a function of gender. Material and Methods: The study was conducted on a total sample of 200 patients with 100, 50, and 50 in group 1 (control group, Skeletal Class I), group 2 (Skeletal Class II), and group 3 (Skeletal Class III), respectively. ANB angle (anteroposterior angle formed by point A, nasion, and point B) measured on lateral cephalogram was used to categorize the patients into 3 groups. The normative nasalance scores were compared for males and females in the control group. The nasalance scores of skeletal Class II and III subjects were compared to the combined normative scores of the control group. The NasalView was used for the objective assessment of nasalance. Oral syllables (/pa/and/pi/), nasal syllables (/ma/and/mi/), and 3 passages (Zoo passage, Rainbow passage, and Nasal sentences) were used to determine the nasalance scores. Results: The intragroup comparison of nasalance scores in group 1 showed statistically significant differences for different stimuli. The gender-related comparison showed no statistically significant differences in nasalance scores. The intergroup comparison of nasalance scores for skeletal malocclusion showed no statistically significant differences for different stimuli except statistically significant lower nasalance values for nasal sentences in group 3 compared to the control group. Conclusion: The study concluded that the nasalance scores for nasal sentences in skeletal Class III malocclusion were significantly lower than in the control group and were not statistically significant between the 3 groups for all other stimuli.

Influence of Khasi Language on Nasal and Oral Passages in English: A Nasometric Study

Introduction
 Speech is a overlaid function of respiratory, phonatory, resonatory, articulatory systems . Nasalance can be defined as the relative amounts of oral and nasal acoustic energy in speech done by modification of oral and nasal cativities that is complex activity of the resonator system. Nasometer was developed by Samuel Fletcher, Larry Adams, and Martin McCutcheon at the University is a computer based instrument facilitating accurate analysis of signal yielding nasalance scores. There is no report regarding nasalence score variance in khasi language speakers speaking English.
 Materials and Methods
 The study aims at analysing and measuring nasalence score in Khasi speakers reading English passages. A total of 5 female subjects were chosen who were native speakers of khasi language and who had exposure of English language since childhoods were selected. Nasometer II Model 6400 (Software version 2.6) of Key Elemetrics Corporation was used. Three standardized passages (Zoo passage, Rainbow passage and nasal sentences) were used for the study.
 Results
 The mean nasalance scores obtained for zoo, rainbow and nasal sentences in female were 19.39± 12.21 SD, 38.13 ± 14.83 SD, 68.33 ± 15.29 SD and 18.26 ± 3.53 SD, 33.13 ± 1.68 SD, 63.20 ± 88 SD respectively. Standard norms show significant differences in nasalance scores obtained for Zoo, Rainbow and Nasal Sentences. Paired t-test was used for comparison among the sentences and computation of data show more significant differences for nasal sentences as compared to zoo and rainbow sentences, that is significant (p>0.05). Rainbow sentences revealed more nasalance scores than zoo sentences (p>0.05) i.e. level of significance.
 Conclusion
 The reported normative Nasalance data can be used by several voice clinicians for assessing resonance quantitively for khasi speakers using austrioasiatic language.

Nasalance in Arabic-Speaking Jordanians: A Comparative Study

Objective: This investigation sought to establish nasalance scores for Jordanian Arabic (JA) speakers, to develop nasalance speech stimuli for JA speakers, and to compare JA adult nasalance scores with those of Standard American English (SAE) speakers. Subjects and Methods: Participants included normal native JA speakers (n = 100; males/females and adults/children) and adult SAE speakers (n = 49). Four speech tasks for JA speakers were developed, which included repetition of vowels, syllables, words, and sentences. Parallel speech tasks were also developed for SAE speakers. A nasometer (Nasometer II 6400; PENTAX Medical, Montvale, NJ, USA) was used to establish nasalance scores for all speakers across all speech tasks. Results: Nasalance values were established for adult and child JA speakers. The nasalance values were higher for Jordanian adults than for Jordanian children. No differences in nasalance were found between male and female Arabic speakers for nonnasal elements. JA speakers were significantly more nasal than SAE speakers on selected speech tasks. Conclusions: Nasalance values for JA speakers were established for both adults and children, and Arabic speech materials were developed. The results of this investigation add to the growing body of research documenting differences in nasalance scores for normal speakers across different languages.

Evaluating Nasalance Values Among Bilingual Mandarin-English Speakers.

The goals of this research are (1) to establish normative nasalance values for bilingual Mandarin-English speakers and compare values to those of previously reported monolingual Mandarin speakers, and (2) to examine whether sex, age, dialect, and language proficiency affect levels of nasalance among Mandarin-English speakers in both English and Mandarin. All participants recorded the speech stimuli, constructed to include oral sentences, nasal sentences, oronasal sentences, and vowels /ɑ, i, u/ in Mandarin and English. Nasalance measurements were recorded using the Nasometer II 6450. A total of 45 (20 males and 25 females) native Mandarin speakers between 20 and 54 years of age from mainland China participated in the study. Mean nasalance scores of the Mandarin oral sentence (Mean [M] = 17.64, standard deviation [SD] = 7.33), oronasal sentence (M = 54.62, SD = 7.81), and nasal sentence (M = 68.73, SD = 8.09) are reported. Mean nasalance scores of the English oral sentence (M = 20.02, SD = 7.83), oronasal sentence (M = 58.71, SD = 7.59), and nasal sentence (M = 65.27, SD = 7.45) are reported. A repeated measures analysis of variance showed significant sex difference in nasalance scores for English stimuli ( P = .031) and Mandarin stimuli ( P = .040). There was no significant effects of age, dialect, and language proficiency on Mandarin or English stimuli. This is the first study to report normative values for Mandarin-English speakers using the Nasometer II. Values reported can be used for objective assessment of bilingual speakers.

Effect of vowel context on test–retest nasalance score variability in children with and without cleft palate

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to determine whether test–retest nasalance score variability differs between Korean children with and without cleft palate (CP) and vowel context influences variability in nasalance score. ParticipantsThirty-four 3-to-5-year-old children with and without CP participated in the study. MethodsThree 8-syllable speech stimuli devoid of nasal consonants were used for data collection. Each stimulus was loaded with high, low, or mixed vowels, respectively. All participants were asked to repeat the speech stimuli twice after the examiner, and an immediate test–retest nasalance score was assessed with no headgear change. ResultsChildren with CP exhibited significantly greater absolute difference in nasalance scores than children without CP. Variability in nasalance scores was significantly different for the vowel context, and the high vowel sentence showed a significantly larger difference in nasalance scores than the low vowel sentence. The cumulative frequencies indicated that, for children with CP in the high vowel sentence, only 8 of 17 (47%) repeated nasalance scores were within 5 points. ConclusionsTest–retest nasalance score variability was greater for children with CP than children without CP, and there was greater variability for the high vowel sentence(s) for both groups.

Nasalance Variability in 3- to 5-Year-Old Children during Production of Speech Stimulus in Three Vowel Contexts

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether age and vowel contexts influence test-retest nasalance score variability in typically developing Korean children. Participants: Forty-five 3- to 5-year-old children with normal speech and resonance participated in the study. Methods: All subjects were asked to repeat three 4-syllable speech stimuli in high, low, or mixed vowel contexts twice after the examiner. An immediate test-retest nasalance score was assessed with no headgear change. Test and retest variability in nasalance scores was examined based on the absolute difference in nasalance scores of the first and second repetition for each stimulus. Results: A significant main effect of the vowel context on variability in nasalance scores was found, but the effect of age on nasalance variability was not significant. Mean absolute difference in nasalance scores for the stimuli in the high vowel contexts was significantly greater than for the stimuli in the low and mixed vowel contexts. Conclusions: The results suggested that variability in nasalance scores might not decrease with age and tend to show considerable individual variations. Increased variability in nasalance scores in the high vowel context might be associated with aerodynamic and acoustic characteristics resulting from physiological aspects of the vowel /i/.

The impact of pregnancy on nasal resonance.

This study aims to investigate the possible impact of hormonal changes on nasal resonance during pregnancy. Between January 2013 and June 2013, a total of 101 pregnant women (mean age 27.1±5.8 years; range 18 to 41 years) visiting obstetric clinics for routine antenatal checkups were included in the study. The control group was consisted of 99 patients (mean age 29.2±6.6 years; range 18 to 42 years) without any nasal complaints. Nasal symptoms were assessed using the Nasal Obstruction Symptom Evaluation (NOSE) Scale. Nasalance scores were calculated by nasometry. The results were compared between study and control groups. The mean nasalance score in pregnant women (40.4±7.8) were statistically significantly lower than the control group (44.7±6.4) (p<0.001). The nasalance score was 43.2±7.0 for the first trimester, 41.1±6.6 for the second trimester, and 39.2±8.8 for the third trimester. There was no statistically significant difference in nasalance scores within three trimesters. The mean nasalance scores of the second and third trimesters were statistically significantly lower than the control group (p<0.001). The NOSE scores were found to be statistically significantly higher in the third trimester (2.9±2.6) than the second trimester (1.1±1.9) (p<0.001). These findings indicate that nasalance scores fall in pregnancy, leading to the development of hyponasal voice.

Effects of Computer System and Vowel Loading on Measures of Nasalance

The purpose of this study was to determine similarities and differences in nasalance scores observed with different computerized nasalance systems in the context of vowel-loaded sentences. Methodology Subjects were 46 Caucasian adults with no perceived hyper- or hyponasality. Nasalance scores were obtained using the Nasometer 6200 (Kay Elemetrics Corp.), the Nasometer II 6400 (Kay Elemetrics Corp.), and the NasalView (Tiger DRS, Inc.) for sentences loaded with mixed, high front, high back, low front, or low back vowels. Measures of nasalance obtained with the NasalView were significantly higher than those obtained with the Nasometer 6200, and the measures of nasalance obtained with the Nasometer 6200 were significantly higher than those obtained with the Nasometer II 6400. However, similar effects of vowel loading on measures of nasalance were observed, regardless of system. For all systems, the high front vowel sentence tended to result in higher measures of nasalance than did the high back, low front, and low back vowel sentences--the mixed vowel sentence tended to have a higher degree of nasalance than did any of the other sentences. Although nasalance data computed using different systems are not readily comparable, all three systems that were evaluated produced similar effects of vowel loading on nasalance. Increased nasalance for high front versus low back vowels may be due to factors such as increased oral impedance, reduced radiated oral sound pressure, possible increases in airflow via the nasal cavity, and increased transpalatal nasalance.

Dialectal and gender differences in nasalance scores in a Japanese population

The aim of the present study was to determine whether there are dialectal and gender-related differences in nasalance scores for normal Japanese speakers. Sixty-eight volunteers consisting of 31 males (age 23.8+/-2.0) and 37 females (age 23.2+/-2.5) were included in this study. They had no diseases affecting speech, and lived in the same region until high school from birth. According to geography, they were divided into four regional groups: Chugoku region, Kinki region, Shikoku region, and other regions. A kitsutsuki passage, which consisted of Japanese non-nasal consonants and vowels, and the Japanese vowels /a/, /i/, /u/, /e/ and /o/, were read three times, and the mean nasalance scores were then obtained with a Nasometer II 6400. The scores of males and females were compared statistically by means of a Student's t-test. The differences among the three regions, Chugoku, Kinki and Shikoku region, were also investigated by means of a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). For all sentences and vowels, the nasalance scores were significantly different between males and females. The one-way ANOVA showed that there were no significant differences among the three regions in both males and females.

Comparison of Nasalance Scores Obtained with the Nasometer 6200 and the Nasometer II 6400

This study was designed to compare nasalance scores obtained with the old Nasometer 6200 and the new Nasometer II 6400, and to evaluate test-retest reliability of nasalance scores on each machine. Nasalance scores were obtained for 60 subjects reading each of two stimuli. Each subject read each stimulus two times on one machine; the headgear was removed and replaced and each stimulus was read a third time. The same procedure was then repeated with the second machine. Within machines, nasalance scores were compared for repeated stimuli with and without headgear change. The first reading of each stimulus with each machine was used to compare nasalance scores across machines. The subjects were 60 adults with normal speech ranging in age from 19 to 59 years. The main outcome measures were the 12 nasalance scores obtained for each of 60 subjects. For both passages, there was a significant difference in nasalance scores between the old Nasometer and the Nasometer II; however, the actual variability that could be attributed to a difference between machines was small. Most of the variability between machines could be explained as within-subject performance variability and variability associated with headgear change. There was no significant difference in repeated scores within machines with or without headgear change. For clinical purposes, care should be exercised when comparing nasalance scores between the old Nasometer and the Nasometer II.

Nasalance scores for normal-speaking Irish children.

To obtain normal nasalance values during the production of a standardized speech sample for Irish children and determine whether significantly different scores exist for different speech stimuli for female and male speakers. Mean nasalance scores were obtained for normal-speaking children during the repetition of 16 test sentences that were categorized according to consonant type within the sentences (high-pressure consonants, low-pressure consonants, nasal consonants). Seventy children (36 girls and 34 boys, aged 4 years 11 months to 13 years) with normal articulation, resonance, and voice were included. Children repeated each of the 16 test sentences individually. The sentences were presented in groups according to consonant type, referred to as sentence categories. Data were collected and analyzed using the Kay nasometer (model 6200.3). Nasalance scores were obtained for the total speech sample and each sentence category. Data were statistically analyzed to investigate the effects of gender, sentence category, and gender by sentence category. Normative nasalance scores were obtained for the total speech sample (26%), high-pressure consonant sentences (14%), low-pressure consonant sentences (16%), and a nasal consonant sentence (51%). There was no significant difference in nasalance scores between male and female speakers. Significant differences were found between each sentence category (p </=.001), except between the high-pressure and low-pressure consonant sentence categories (p =.09). The present study provides normative nasalance data for English-speaking Irish children. There was a significant difference between nasalance scores for different speech stimuli.

Nasometric Values for Normal Nasal Resonance in the Speech of Young Flemish Adults

Abstract Objective: The purpose of this study was to obtain normative nasalance scores for adult subjects speaking the Flemish language. Additional objectives of the study were to determine if speaker sex played a role in differences in nasalance scores and if significantly different nasalance scores existed for Flemish compared with other languages or dialects. Design: Nasalance scores were obtained while young Flemish adults read three standard nasalance passages. These passages were an oronasal passage (a text that contained the same approximate percentage of nasal consonants as found in the standard Dutch speech), an oral passage (a text that excluded nasal consonants), and a nasal passage (a reading text loaded with nasal consonants). Participants: Subjects included 58 healthy young Flemish adults with normal oral and velopharyngeal structure and function, normal hearing levels, normal voice characteristics, and normal resonance and articulation skills. Methods: The Nasometer (model 6200) was used to...

Nasalance scores in snoring children with obstructive symptoms

Objective: Snoring and the sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) in children are usually caused by adenotonsillar hypertrophy, which may affect air escape into the nose and nasal resonance. A microcomputer-based system makes it possible to objectively determine whether the oral passage is adequately separated from the nasal passage during phonation. The score thus obtained is called nasalance. This study was conducted to verify whether there exists differences in nasalance between primary snorers and OSAS-children. Design: Fifty-three habitually snoring children (31 boys), mean age 6.1 years (range 3.2–10.5 years), were subjected to overnight sleep polygraphy (PG) and nasalance measurements with the Nasometer 6200. The study was successfully repeated 6 months later on 36 children. Results: Nineteen children had obstructive apnea-hypopneaindex (OAHI)>1 on overnight polygraphy (OSAS-children), while 32 were considered primary snorers (PS), (OAHI<1). No statistically significant difference in nasalance scores was found between the OSAS- and PS children. Both groups of children had somewhat higher mean nasalance values both for oral and nasal passage sentences than the normative values for Finnish speech. In general, the most habitual snorers had lower nasalance scores than the less frequently snoring children ( P=0.05). Earlier adenoidectomy or palatine tonsillar size did not have a significant influence on the nasalance. Adenotonsillectomy did not affect the nasalance scores of the nine children operated on during the follow-up period. Conclusions: According to the present study, nasalance measurements cannot be used to predict the incidence of OSAS among snoring children.

Nasal co‐articulation in child and adult speech

The present study was motivated by the finding [Thompson and Hixon, Cleft Palate J. 16, 412–420 (1979)] that the percentage of subjects showing emission of nasal airflow at the midpoint of prenasal vowels increased through childhood. An acoustical method was used to test the hypothesis that the domain of velar co‐articulation increases with age. Adults and children aged 5 and 10 years (ten of each) produced /dVn/ and /nVd/ words eight times each at normal and fast speaking rates. Abrupt changes in nasalance scores (based on the ratio of the signal transduced by nasal and oral microphones separated by a thin plate) were used to determine what part of vowels (/i,I,U/) were nasalized. There was no difference between groups in either the percentage of the vowel intervals in /dVn/ (78%) or /nVd/ (82%) that were nasalized, or in the absolute duration of the nasalized portion of the vowels (389 and 342 ms, respectively). This was true even after normalizing for between‐group differences in vowel duration. These results suggested that the domain of velar co‐articulation either does not change with age, or shows a mature pattern by the age of 5 years. In addition, the subjects in all three groups manifested the same substantial difference in nasalance scores in the context of /d‐d/ (17.9) versus /n‐n/(58.9). Both adults and children showed significantly greater nasalance scores in the context of /i/ than /u/ or /I/, presumably as the result of greater oral resistance to airflow in /i/. [Work supported by NIH.]