Perturbation In Voice Of Children With Cleft Lip And /Or Palate.

Abstract

Occurrence of phonatory deviancies is not uncommon in children with congenital cleft lip/palate. However, very few researchers have observed and reported the nature of these deviancies. Present study aimed at analyzing perturbation measures in the voices of children born with cleft lip and/ or palate.  Perturbation related measures of the Voice samples of 40 children with clefts were analyzed using VAGHMI software and compared with the age and number matched group of children without any cleft. Mean jitter and shimmer values were found to be higher in the pre and post-operative cases of cleft lip and/ or palate when compared to the controls, though not statistically significant. Operative measures too did not lead to any significant changes in the Perturbation related voice parameters in children with cleft. Present study highlights the lack of sensitivity possessed by Perturbation measures in correlating the perceptual phonatory deviancies in voice of children with repaired and unrepaired cleft lip/palate.

Key words: Cleft lip and palate, jitter, shimmer, perturbation