Assessment of Intellectual Abilities for Subjects With Velopharyngeal Incompetence and Their Impact on Speech Intelligibility

Overview

To Assess effect of intelligence on speech production on subjects with velopharyngeal incompetence Search if there is any relation between congenital Velopharyngeal incompetence and decrease IQ of patients

Speech production is a complex process by which thoughts are generated into spoken utterances. Production involves the selection of appropriate words and the appropriate form of those words from the lexicon and morphology, and the organization of those words through the syntax. Then, the phonetic properties of the words are retrieved and the sentence is uttered through the articulations associated with those phonetic properties. The term intelligibility refers to 'speech clarity' or the proportion of a speaker's output that a listener can readily understand. Velopharyngeal Incompetence (VPI) refers to any situation in which an individual is unable to completely close the nasal airway during speech. The velopharyngeal mechanism is comprised of a complex group of structures that act in unison to control airflow through the nose and mouth by elevation of the soft palate and constriction of both the lateral and posterior pharyngeal walls. Any disruption in this mechanism may result in abnormal, poorly intelligible speech. VPI can manifest as hypernasality, nasal emission, decreased vocal intensity, and/or facial grimacing. Intellectual ability refers to the skills required to think critically, see connections between disciplines and problem solve in new or changing situations. Memory, creative problem solving and vocabulary also contribute to the level of an individual's intellectual ability. Orofacial clefts (OFCs) are frequently occurring human birth defects that have a complex, multifactorial etiology. Though structural orofacial defects are often surgically corrected during infancy and early childhood, OFC patient cohorts are at high risk for neurobehavioral problems including learning disability, impaired language function, psychosocial adjustment issues, and persistently reduced academic achievement.

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