Biomedical subjects

T L Whitehill

Publications and source records attributed to T L Whitehill.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Chinese attitudes toward cleft lip and palate: effects of personal contact.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of personal contact on the attitudes of individuals towards persons with cleft lip and palate (CLP) and the possible cultural differences in these attitudes for Chinese respondents living in Hong Kong. DESIGN: Chinese parent, teacher, and employer groups were administered a cleft lip and palate attitudinal questionnaire and the Scale of Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons inventory. SUBJECTS: Thirty-nine parents of children with CLP, 27 teachers of children with CLP, and 37 employers with no previous contact with individuals with CLP participated in the study. RESULTS: The results showed significant intergroup differences on several items involving beliefs concerning emotional health, social development, and employment-related barriers for individuals with CLP, and whether such individuals should seek nonmedical help to treat speech problems. Employers showed a comparatively less favorable attitude to persons with CLP than the two other groups. CONCLUSION: Parent, teacher, and employer groups in the Chinese community studied showed differences in their attitudes towards individuals with CLP. The findings suggest the need for further community health education to help develop more positive attitudes towards disabled persons in general, as well as programs targeted at reducing negative stereotyping of adults and children with CLP.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Are hearing and middle ear statuses at risk in Chinese patients undergoing orthognathic surgery?

Orthognathic surgery, which is performed to correct dentofacial abnormalities, has been associated with postoperative reduction in hearing sensitivity and middle ear dysfunction. In this study, the pre- and postoperative hearing status and middle ear function of 37 Chinese subjects who underwent orthognathic surgery, as well as subjective reports of aural symptoms, particularly hearing loss, tinnitus, fullness and otalgia, were investigated. There was a significant increase in the number of subjects with measured loss, perceived loss and aural fullness from pre-surgery to 1 week post surgery. However, the percentage of increase was small compared with previous findings. This difference in findings was attributed to the type of surgical techniques used, and to the fact that the Chinese population appears to be less susceptible to middle ear effusion. Subjective complaints of aural symptoms may not be accompanied by measured loss.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2001

Nasalance measures in Cantonese-speaking women.

OBJECTIVES: To establish and evaluate stimulus materials for nasalance measurement in Cantonese speakers, to provide normative data for Cantonese-speaking women, and to evaluate session-to-session reliability of nasalance measures. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: One hundred forty-one Cantonese-speaking women with normal resonance who were students in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Hong Kong. PROCEDURES: Participants read aloud four speech stimuli: oral sentences, nasal sentences, an oral paragraph (similar to the Zoo Passage), and an oral-nasal paragraph (similar to the Rainbow Passage). Data were collected and analyzed using the Kay Nasometer 6200. Data collection was repeated for a subgroup of speakers (n = 28) on a separate day. Nasalance materials were evaluated by using statistical tests of difference and correlation. RESULTS: Group mean (standard deviation) nasalance scores for oral sentences, nasal sentences, oral paragraph, and oral-nasal paragraph were 16.79 (5.99), 55.67 (7.38), 13.68 (7.16), and 35.46 (6.22), respectively. There was a significant difference in mean nasalance scores for oral versus nasal materials. Correlations between stimuli were as expected, ranging from 0.43 to 0.91. Session-to-session reliability was within 5 points for over 95% of speakers for the oral stimuli but for less than 76% of speakers for the nasal and oral-nasal stimuli. CONCLUSIONS: Standard nasalance materials have been developed for Cantonese, and normative data have been established for Cantonese women. Evaluation of materials indicated acceptable differentiation between oral and nasal materials. Two stimuli (nasal sentences and oral paragraph) are recommended for future use. Comparison with findings from other languages showed similarities in scores; possible language-specific differences are discussed. Session-to-session reliability was poorer for nasal than oral stimuli.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2000

Perceptual-phonetic predictors of single-word intelligibility: a study of Cantonese dysarthria.

This study investigated the perceptual-phonetic predictors of intelligibility in Cantonese speakers with dysarthria. The speakers were 20 young adults with cerebral palsy. The listener group consisted of 12 native Cantonese speakers. A single-word intelligibility test was constructed, based on 17 phonetic contrasts. There were no significant differences in intelligibility for gender, age, or type of cerebral palsy. A regression analysis showed that intelligibility could be predicted with 97% accuracy by 5 out of the 6 most problematic contrasts. Three contrasts (glottal vs. null, final vs. null, and long vs. short vowel) predicted variation on an independent intelligibility measure obtained for the same speakers with 84% accuracy. Principal components analysis derived 4 components, which accounted for 81% of the variance in the 17 contrasts. Physiological explanations and language-specific contributions to speech disorder in this group of speakers are discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2000

Nasalance distance and ratio: two new measures.

OBJECTIVES: Mean nasalance in speakers with perceptually normal nasal resonance can differ in magnitude considerably. In addition, categorizations of speech based on nasalance scores may not agree with perceptual judgments. To overcome this limitation, we evaluated two new simple measures derived from mean nasalance data: the nasalance distance (range between maximum and minimum nasalance) and the nasalance ratio (minimum nasalance divided by maximum nasalance). SETTING: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Technology, Munich, Germany. SUBJECTS: The sample consisted of 133 cleft lip and palate patients with normal nasal resonance or varying degrees of hypernasality. PROCEDURES: Oral and nasal acoustic measurements were made using the NasalView system. Nasalance distance and nasalance ratio were calculated for five non-nasal and three nasal sentences from the modified Heidelberg Rhinophonia Assessment Form. RESULTS: Optimum cutoffs were derived from receiver-operating characteristics. Results for the sentence stimuli ranged from 64.4% to 89.6% sensitivity and from 91.2% to 94.1% specificity. When the analysis was limited to only one nonnasal and one nasal sentence, results ranged from 79.7% to 87.5% sensitivity and from 88.2% to 97.1% specificity. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the two new measurements are valuable in routine clinical examinations. Nasalance distance and ratio derived from sentence stimuli are two useful and easily applicable measures that can be used to supplement the nasalance mean value.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1996

Electropalatography treatment in an adult with late repair of cleft palate.

This paper describes the use of electropalatography (EPG) in the treatment of a speech disorder in a Cantonese-speaking woman who had primary repair of the palate at age 13. A multiple-baseline approach was used to document treatment efficacy using electropalatography. The client showed rapid improvement in articulatory placement, with generalization to nontarget phonemes. In addition, improvement was noted in her manner of articulation, with a reduction of nasal emission. The relationship between articulatory placement errors and nasal emission in late repair cleft is discussed. Explanations for the effectiveness of EPG with this client are offered.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1996

Speech error patterns in Cantonese-speaking children with cleft palate.

The subjects were seven Cantonese-speaking children with repaired cleft palate, aged between 3;2 and 10;2. Speech samples were obtained by use of two word lists. Error patterns were described by use of a detailed analysis based on perceptual judgements. A 'confusion matrix' was constructed for each subject to illustrate the relative frequency of error type. The results showed high within-subject and across-subject variability. The data partially support findings from other languages, for example, showing posterior placement for alveolar targets. However, some language-specific errors were identified, such as initial consonant deletion. Four possible explanations for the data are discussed.

Articulation Disorders↗