Nasality and velopharyngeal function in five hearing impaired adults.

Area of Science:

• Speech-Language Pathology
• Audiology
• Acoustic Phonetics

Background:

• Hypernasality is a common speech characteristic in individuals with hearing impairments.
• Velopharyngeal functioning is crucial for normal speech production, affecting resonance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between velopharyngeal functioning and perceived hypernasality in hearing impaired adults.
• To explore factors beyond velopharyngeal physiology that may contribute to hypernasal speech perception.

Main Methods:

• Cineradiographic observations were used to assess velopharyngeal movement.
• Listener judgments were collected to evaluate the degree of hypernasality in speech.
• Five hearing impaired adults participated in the study.

Main Results:

• All participants with hearing impairments were perceived as having hypernasal speech.
• Only two subjects demonstrated observable velopharyngeal opening during speech.
• A discrepancy exists between perceived nasality and objective velopharyngeal function.

Conclusions:

• Perceived hypernasality in hearing impaired speakers is not solely determined by velopharyngeal opening.
• Other physiological or learned factors may contribute to excessive nasality.
• Further research is needed to identify these contributing variables.