Speech results in this series seem less satisfactory than those reported in other published international studies, but it is difficult to draw any certain conclusions about speech results because of large methodological differences. Further developments to ensure high reliability of perceptual ratings of speech are called for.

This study was conducted to establish normative nasalance values for Swedish speaking children as measured with the Nasometer(trade mark) II, and to investigate differences due to regional dialect, gender, and age. Two hundred and twenty healthy children aged 4-5, 6-7, and 9-11 years were included. Group mean nasalance scores for four speech stimuli were calculated and compared. There were no significant differences due to dialect or gender for children in the study. For age there was a significant difference on nasal sentences between the youngest group of children and the other two groups, age 4-5 vs age 6-7 (t = -2.844, p = .006) and for age 4-5 vs age 9-11 (t = -2.888, p = .005). The results from this study have both clinical significance for Swedish SLPs working with resonance disorders, and theoretical significance for linguists studying features of dialects and languages.

The results of untrained listeners' ratings in this study in the main confirm the ratings of speech and language pathologists and show that cleft palate speech disorders may have an impact in the everyday life of the speaker.

The Nasometer might be useful for the SLP with limited experience in assessing resonance disorders in differentiating between hyper- and hyponasality. With listener reliability for ratings of hypernasality still being an issue, the use of a nasalance score as a complement to the perceptual evaluation will also aid the expert SLP. It will give an alternative way of quantifying speech resonance and might help in especially hard to judge cases.

Objective: To assess the reliability of speech variables and speech-related quality indicators in the Swedish quality registry for cleft lip and palate (CLP). Design: Retrospective study. Setting: Primary care university hospitals. Participants: Fifty-two 5-year-old children with unilateral CLP and 41 with bilateral CLP. Main Outcome Measures: Registry data for “percent nonoral errors” and “perceived velopharyngeal competence” (VPC) were compared to reassessments by 4 independent judges based on audio recordings. Interjudge agreement for “percent consonants correct” (PCC) and the reliability of 3 quality indicators were also assessed. Agreement was calculated with single measures intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for articulation outcomes, quadratic weighted κ and ICC for VPC, and percentage agreement and κ for quality indicators. Results: When the agreement between registry data and the judges’ reassessments was assessed, the ICC was 0.79 for percent nonoral errors. For VPC, the κ coefficient was 0.66 to 0.75 and the ICC was 0.73. Interjudge agreement for PCC calculated with ICC was 0.85. For the quality indicator “proportion of children with ≥86% correct consonants,” all 4 judges were in agreement for 72% of the cases. For “proportion of children without nonoral speech errors” and “proportion of children with competent or marginally incompetent velopharyngeal function,” the agreement between registry data and the 4 judges was 89% and 85%, respectively. Conclusions: The results indicate that registry data on PCC, percent nonoral errors, VPC, and the quality indicators “proportion of children without nonoral speech errors” and “proportion of children with competent or marginally incompetent velopharyngeal function” are reliable.