Age and gender effects on measures of RMS nasalance

Awan's (1998) NasalView speech analysis system is applied to obtain normative data on nasalance from groups of children (N = 181, aged 5-14) & to investigate effects of age & sex differences on nasalance within this population, which was screened for normal hearing & speech characteristics, absence of hyper- & hyponasality, & absence of nasal congestion. Most subjects (Ss) read passages containing 0%, 11%, & 35% nasals; young Ss unable to read the passages repeated specific sentences from each one. Results indicate no effect of speaker's sex on nasalance in any age group & significant increases of nasalance with age in both sexes; age group correlates significantly with passage type in female, male, & combined S groups. 1 Table, 3 Figures, 14 References. J. Hitchcock