title: Comparison between perceptual assessments of nasality and nasalance scores.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There are different reports of the usefulness of the Nasometer™ as a complement to listening, often as correlation calculations between listening and nasalance measurements. Differences between findings have been attributed to listener experience and types of speech stimuli.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To compare nasalance scores from the Nasometer with perceptual assessments, for the same and different Swedish speech stimuli, using three groups of listeners with differing levels of experience in judging speech nasality.
  
  
  METHODS
  To compare nasalance scores and blinded listener ratings of randomized recordings using three groups of listeners and two groups of speakers. Speakers were either classified as having hypernasal speech or speech with typical speech resonance. Listeners were speech-language pathologists (SLPs) working predominantly with resonance disorders, other SLPs and untrained listeners.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Correlations (r(s)) between hypernasality ratings and nasalance scores for each listener group and speech stimuli were calculated. For both groups of SLPs all correlations between perceptual ratings and nasalance scores were significant at p= 0.01. The correlations between the nasalance scores and ratings by listeners in the SLP groups were higher than those for the untrained listener group regardless of stimulus type. Post-hoc Mann-Whitney U-tests showed that the only difference that was significant was expert SLP group versus untrained listener group. Secondly, correlations between perceptual ratings and oral stimulus nasalance scores were higher when the perceptual ratings were based on spontaneous speech rather than on the oral stimulus. However, a Wilcoxon signed rank test showed that the difference was not significant. A third finding was that correlations between oral stimulus nasalance scores and perceptual scores were higher than those between mixed stimulus nasalance scores and perceptual scores. A Wilcoxon signed rank test showed that the difference was significant.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Nasometer might be useful for the SLP with limited experience in assessing resonance disorders in differentiating between hyper- and hyponasality. With listener reliability for ratings of hypernasality still being an issue, the use of a nasalance score as a complement to the perceptual evaluation will also aid the expert SLP. It will give an alternative way of quantifying speech resonance and might help in especially hard to judge cases.
authors.affiliation: Speech and Language Pathology, Department of Clinical Sciences, Umeå University, Stockholm, Sweden. karin.brunnegard@logopedi.umu.se
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Brunnegård
authors.forename: Anette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lohmander
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van Doorn
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000534:rehabilitation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D013067:Speech Perception; D013068:Speech Production Measurement / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013066:Speech-Language Pathology; D013548:Sweden; D014681:Velopharyngeal Insufficiency / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D014833:Voice Quality