Identification of nasometric norm values of school age children between the age of 8 and 11

One of the factors that affects the comprehention of the speech is nasal speech. It is possible to close up the norm values with medical treatment techniques and/or with speech therapy. For this, it is obvious that the norm values of the society must be determined.The aim of this study, is to determine the nasal norm values of the school aged children, aged between 8-11 with using nasometer. Based on this purpose, the research questions are, is there any correlation between nasometric values and age ın the reliability and validity analyses of the texts that developed for using with nasometer, is there any correlation between nasometric values and gender, and is there any correlation between nasometric values and economical status.There are (57 girls and 72 boys) 129 children participated in the study. Participants read three of the texts (morning surprise passage, rainbow reading passage, M-N sentences reading passage). Participants are divided in to four age groups. These groups are, 96-107, 108-119, 120-131 and 132+. In the 96-107 age group there are 11 girls and 12 boys, in 108-119 age group there are 17 girls and 19 boys, in 120-131 age group there are 12 girls and 24 boys included.Nasometric values of the M-N text that have mostly the nasal sounds has statistically greater values than other two passages nasometric values(p<0,01). The reading passage morning surprise have no nasal souds, and the rainbow passage have both oral and nasal sounds. Nasal values of the rainbow passage is statistically greater than the nasal values of morning surprise passage (p<0,01). It is seen that the gender factor has an effect on only in the morning surprise passage. There is no correlation found between the age an the morning surprise passage. There is a correlation found statistically between the age and the rainbow passage and M-N sentences passage. The nasometric values of these two text are increases with the age. Another result of this study is that there is no correlation found with the nasometric values and the economical status.In this research, the nasometric norm values of the Turkish children aged between 8-11 is established. With this values it becomes easy to evaluate the children aged between 8-11 with the velopharyngeal insufficiency and nasality problem.