Age and Phonetic Influences on Velar Flutter as a Component of Nasal Turbulence in Children With Repaired Cleft Palate

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of age and selected phonetic factors on velar flutter as a component of nasal turbulence in children with repaired cleft palate. Participants: A total of 30 children with repaired cleft palate with or without cleft lip ranging in age from 4 to 13 years (mean, 8.6 years; standard deviation, 2.4 years) who exhibited nasal turbulence characterized by velar flutter participated in the study. Measures: The headset of a nasometer was used to record the children producing multiple repetitions of consonant-vowel (CV) syllables that contrasted the stops /p/ and /t/ with the fricatives /f/ and /s/ and the high-front vowel /i/ with the low mid-central vowel /K/. All targeted consonants were coded relative to the presence of flutter using both perceptual and spectral criteria. Percentages of syllables coded for flutter were calculated as a function of consonant and vowel types. Intra-and interjudge reliability of coding was high. Results: Percentages of syllables with velar flutter ranged from a high of 100% to a low of 4% among the participants. A Spearman rank-order correlation between age and percentage of syllables with flutter was nonsignificant. Mantel-Haenszel tests for repeated measures indicated that flutter occurred more often during production of syllables containing /i/ (62%) when compared with /K/ (50%) (P = .029). Conclusions: Velar flutter as a component of nasal turbulence varies widely among children with repaired cleft palate. CV syllables with high vowels appear to trigger velar flutter more often than syllables with low vowels.