Quantitative measurement of nasality in EMR children

Abstract

A new bioelectronic system for detecting and measuring voice parameters (TONAR) was used to quantify nasality in 50 educable mentally retarded children. Results indicated that over one-third of the children evaluated were hypernasal. The high prevalence of excessive nasality in EMR children was contrasted with (1) normative data on 78 nonretarded children collected with the bioelectronic system and (2) with prior incidence data based on listener judgments reported for retarded and nonretarded populations. The unique advantages of instrumental measurement of the elusive problem of hypernasality are discussed.