Acoustic analysis of voice in children with cleft palate and velopharyngeal insufficiency

Acoustic analysis of voice can provide instrumental data concerning vocal abnormalities. These findings can be used for monitoring clinical course in cases of voice disorders. Cleft palate severely affects the structure of the vocal tract. Hence, voice quality can also be also affected. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of cleft palate on acoustic parameters of voice. This study was a descriptive- analytic one and the participants consisted of30 children (15 girls and 15 boys) who had persistent velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) with cleft repair surgery and 30 children(17 girls and 13 boys) participated as normal peers. The age range of children in the both groups was 6-12 year-old. Severity of hypernasality was moderate to severe. Participates phonated vowel /a/ minimum for 5 seconds and mid 3 seconds of that was used for acoustic analysis by PRAAT 6.0.55 software. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to assess normality of distributions in the groups. Independent sample T tests were used for comparing mean differences of both groups. There were significant differences in acoustic parameters in F0, jitter, F0 High, Low intensity, DSI and MPT between two persistent VPI and normal groups. Regarding to the results of the present study, it seems reasonable to include strategies for voice therapy in the speech and language pathology intervention plans for patients with VPI and future research should focus on voice disorders in patients with VPI is needed.