Normative Nasalance Scores and Differences as a Function of Gender and Residential Area

Hwang, Young Jin

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2007;12(3): 508-520.

Young Jin Hwang^`

황영진(Young Jin Hwang)

ABSTRACT

Background & Objectives
The measurement of nasalance has often been described as a useful component in resonance evaluation. This study aimed to obtain normative nasalance scores and determine differences as a function of gender and residential area.
Methods
Four hundred eighty-two subjects participated in this study: 237 males and 245 females from five different residential areas in Korea. The stimuli used in this experiment were four sentences: ‘Mother passage (nasal consonants ratio[ncr]: 100%),’ ‘Zoo sentence(ncr: 50%),’ ‘Uncle sentence(ncr: 0%),’ and ‘Sea sentence(ncr: 0%)’. The test sentences were presented in a random order. The NasalView was used to measure the recorded signals and to obtain mean nasalance values.
Results
In the analysis of normative nasalance data as a function of gender and residential area, the order of the average nasalance scores from lowest to highest was ‘Sea sentence,’ ‘Uncle sentence,’ ‘Zoo sentence,’ and ‘Mother sentence’. The average nasalance score was higher in females than in males in ‘Sea sentence,’ ‘Uncle sentence,’ and ‘Zoo sentence.’ In the analysis of normative nasalance data as a function of residential area, the order of the average nasalance scores from highest to lowest was Chungcheong-do, Jeolla-do, Gyeonggi-do, Gangwon-do, and Gyeongsang-do in all sentences except for ‘Mother sentence.’
Discussion & Conclusion
The results provide regional criteria to help evaluate hypernasal and hyponasal speech due to a velopharyngeal inadequacy in a Korean speaker using NasalView. Also, the four reading sentences, which are relatively short in length, could be used effectively for children as well as adults.