Influence of training of evaluators in perceptual judgment of hipernasality

• Grant number: 13/06015-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: August 01, 2013
• End date: July 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Speech Therapy
• Principal Investigator: Renata Paciello Yamashita
• Grantee: Adriana Cristina de Almeida Santos Furlan de Oliveira
• Host Institution: Hospital de Reabilitação de Anomalias Craniofaciais (HRAC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Bauru , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The diagnosis of the cleft lip and palate speech symptoms is based on perceptual assessment, which is considered as the gold standard for clinical cleft palate speech evaluation. However, due to its subjectivity, regarding the listener's particular internal standard, high reliability in hypernasality judgment among listeners may be difficult to reach. For this reason, some studies have proposed a previous listeners training, aiming to standardize the categories to be used during the classification of the hypernasality. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of listeners practice training on inter- and intra-judge reliability of hypernasality judgments. The hypothesis is that previous training may increase inter-judge agreement level. Approximately 60 audio recordings speech samples from subjects with cleft palate will be assessed twice by three speech pathologists with clinical experience in cleft treatment. First, the listeners will rate the hypernasality using their particular criteria in a 4-point scale: 1= hypernasality absence, 2= mild hypernasality, 3= moderate and 4= severe. Further, all listeners will take part in a training practice, where a set of 4 speech samples corresponding to each one of the 4 hypernasality degrees will be presented. This set of speech samples shall be used as a reference in a second hypernasality assessment. Inter- and intra-judge agreement levels will be assessed using Kappa coefficient before and after practice training and will be compared using Chi-Square test.Keywords: Cleft palate. Velopharyngeal insufficiency. Speech Disorders

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

OLIVEIRA, Adriana Cristina de Almeida Santos Furlan de. Influence of examiner training on the perceptual assessment of hypernasality. 2014. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Odontologia de Bauru (FOB/SDB) Bauru.