A Cephalometric study of velar stretch in 8 and 10-year old children

Abstract

This investigation examined the prevalence, relative magnitude, and selected components of velar stretch in normal-speaking 8 and 10-year-old children. For twenty 8-year-old and twenty 10-year-old children, lateral cephalometric films were obtained under three conditions: (1) subject at rest, (2) subject sustaining the vowel /u/, and (3) subject sustaining the voiceless fricative /s/. The cephalometric films were traced on acetate paper and specific radiographic measurements were made to describe important facets of velar stretch in children. Data were obtained on the resting length of the soft palate, the antero-posterior depth of the pharynx, and the prevalence of velopharyngeal closure and/or the degree of velopharyngeal opening observed during selected speech utterances in normal-speaking 8 and 10-year-old children. Such information is expected to be useful to dentists, speech pathologists, and physicians who use lateral headplates to assess velopharyngeal adequacy. Velar stretch per se was not observed in all 40 normal-speaking children. During the production of /u/, 36 children (90%) exhibited velar stretch; for /s/, 32 children (80%) manifested stretch. Paired- comparison t-test results showed that the length of the soft palate measured during speech was significantly greater than its resting length in both 8 and 10-year-old children. Moreover, significantly more total velar stretch was found during the production of the vowel /u/ than during the production of the consonant /s/ in both 8 and 10-year-old children. Although there was a significant increase in the length of the entire soft palate during the functional activities of speech, no significant increase in the anterior portion of the soft palate was associated with speech. Analysis of variance techniques showed that 10-year-old children exhibited significantly greater velar stretch during both /u/ and /s/ utterances than did 8-year-old children. In addition, 10-year-old children exhibited significantly greater velar height and greater velar length characteristics during both /u/ and /s/ utterances than did 8-year-old. children. Correlation procedures were used to examine the relationships between velar stretch and other commonly employed cephalometric measures. These analyses indicated that although velar stretch was significantly correlated with a number of commonly employed cephalometric measures, the amount of velar stretch was not well predicted by any single cephalometric measure used in this research.