Normering av nasaleringsvärden uppmätta med nasometer hos barn i fyra- till femårsåldern i Linköping
The Nasometer is a non-invasive acoustic measuring instrument that quantifies the ratio ofnasal resonance in speech. It can be used as a complement to perceptual judgment of speech impediments, for example, in patients with cleft palate and velopharyngeal insufficiency. Inorder to determine if a nasalance score is abnormal, it must be compared to norm data. The main purpose of the study was to collect reference nasalance scores in children between fourand five years of age in Linköping. An additional objective was to compare the results tonorm data collected in Umeå. The participants were 52 children aged between 4:2 and 5:11.Scores were recorded with a Nasometer at the children?s preschools. The speech materialincluded oral words, oral sentences, oronasal sentences, nasal sentences and the syllablesequence ?ma-ma-ma?. The mean nasalance score was 18.1 % for the oral words, 14.2 % forthe oral sentences, 28.9 % for the oronasal sentences, 53.1 % for the nasal sentences and 65.1% for the syllable sequence ?ma-ma-ma?. Significantly higher nasalance scores were recordedin boys during oral word production (p < .05). The nasalance scores in children fromLinköping were significantly higher than those recorded in children from Umeå during oralword production (p < .05).