Effect of stimulus length on nasalance scores.
OBJECTIVE
Nasalance measures were compared for speech stimuli of four different lengths.


METHODS
The standard for comparison was a 44-syllable passage. The 44-syllable passage was compared to a 17-syllable passage, a 6-syllable sentence, and a 2-syllable word. All stimuli were devoid of nasal consonants and were composed only of low pressure consonants and vowels.


METHODS
Academic and clinical craniofacial center.


METHODS
The subjects were 20 children at risk for velopharyngeal dysfunction and 5 children without history of communication disorder.


METHODS
The main outcome measures were the nasalance scores associated with speech samples of different lengths.


RESULTS
The results showed that comparable measures of nasalance can be obtained using stimuli as short as a six-syllable sentence. Both the 17-syllable and the 6-syllable stimulus achieved high criterion validity, indicating that stimuli of that length could be substituted for the longer 44-syllable passage. The two-syllable word, however, had significantly lower criterion validity and could not be used to obtain valid estimates of nasalance.


CONCLUSIONS
Valid assessment of nasalance can be achieved with speech samples as short as six syllables.
Watterson
T
T
Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, University of Nevada School of Medicine, Reno 89557, USA. tw@med.unr.edu
Lewis
K E
KE
Foley-Homan
N
N
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012307:Risk Factors; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D013068:Speech Production Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors; D014681:Velopharyngeal Insufficiency / Q000503:physiopathology