Treatment Effects of Voice Therapy for Hypernasality in Children with Cochlear Implants

Background & Objectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the nasalance score of children with cochlear implant (CI) comparing that of children with normal hearing and to verify the effects of voice therapy on improving the hypernasality observed in CI children. Methods: The nasalance scores of 7 Korean vowels (/a, <^>, o, u, (sic), i, epsilon/) pronounced by 10 children with CI (G1) and 10 children with NH (G2) matching sex and chronological age were measured by Dr. Speech. Voice therapy was performed 2 times a week and 40 minutes a session during 8 weeks. Their nasalance scores were measured 3 times (before and after 4 and 8 weeks of the training). Results: Results of nasalance value of children with CI were as follows: means of nasalance scores of G1 (CI) were significantly higher than those of G2 (NH) in all 7 vowels (p<.05). Means of high vowels were significantly higher than those of low vowels in both groups (p<.05). The result of voice therapy showed that there were significant differences in nasalance scores in all 7 vowels (p<.05). Discussion & Conclusion: Participants in this study were implanted over the age 5 and have used the device more than 2 years. Although they have improved auditory feedback through CI, their voice were evaluated as being hypernasal. After voice therapy, nasalance scores were decreased to the range of children with normal hearing.