Nasometric values for normal Spanish-speaking females: a preliminary report

Most normative data available for assessing resonance through instrumentation have been collected with English-speaking individuals. The present study aimed at providing initial data on Spanish for use with the nasometer. Mean nasalance scores were obtained from 40 normal Puerto Rican Spanish-speaking females while they read three types of stimuli: (1) sentences containing nasal consonants, (2) a reading passage with both oral and nasal consonants, and (3) a reading passage with oral consonants. Results indicated significant differences in mean nasalance scores across the nasal sentences, as well as the two paragraph stimuli. In addition, a high degree of intersubject variability in the production of the target stimuli was evidenced. Comparisons with previous English normative data with similar reading stimuli are made and possible avenues for further research on the use of the nasometer with Spanish-speaking populations are discussed.