Abstract
Velopharyngealf iberscopice xaminationsw ere made on 35 patients( 4 years1 0 monthst o 17years 2 months of age), including 12 with bilateral cleft palate,12 with unilaltaral cleft palate, and 11with isolated cleft palate from February 1992 to March 1995 at Fujigaoka Rehabilitation Hospital, Showa University, and Departmento f Plastic and ReconstructiveS urgery, Showa University. All patients were examined with respect to the type and degree of closure of the phonemes /a/, /i/, /p/, and /∫/, and the results were comparedw ith those of the auditory assessmentb y speech therapists. The results were as follows.
1. The patie nts were grouped into four types of closure: soft palate primary type, lateral pharyngeal wall primary type, soft palate and lateral pharyngeal wall type, and soft palate and lateral and posterior pharyngeal wall type.
2. All the patients cat egorizeda s the soft palate primary type belong to either the group with no hypernasality or the group with mild hypernasality. The patients classified as the other three types showed various degrees of hypernasality.
3. There was no strong relation between age and type.
4. Longitudinals tudy revealed no patient to chan ge from one closure type to another during the prognosis period.
5. Mo st patientsw ith no hypernasalitys howed no differencei n the degree of closure of the phonemes.
6. When there were differences in the degree of closure for the phonemes, the consonants /p/ and /∫/ were better closed than the vowels /i/ and /a/ irrespective of the degree of hypernasality. The degree of closure in the consonants, both consonants showed no difference in the degree of closure, or /∫/ showed better closure than /p/ did. However, the degree of hypernasality varied between vowels. In the case of mild hypernasality, both vowels showed no difference in the degree of closure, or /i/ was better than /a/. In the case of moderate hypernasality, no tendency was observed. And in the case of severe hypernasality, both vowels showed no difference in the degree of closure.
7. There was no strong relation between age and difference in the de g ree of closure of the phonemes.
8. The tendency of the consonants being better closed than the vowels remained unchanged in the phonemes which changed their degree of closure during the prognosis period.
