Long-term Average Spectra Analysis of Voice in Children With Cleft Palate

Summary Objectives The purpose of this study was to survey the spectral characteristics and to compare, using an acoustic analyzer, the objective data obtained from patients with cleft palates with the objective data of normal children using long-term average spectra (LTAS) analysis. Methods Participants were divided into a clinical group and a control group. All participants were asked to practice reading a sentence to become fluent. The duration of each recording was about 60 seconds. All samples were subjected to acoustic analysis using Praat software. All recordings were analyzed acoustically using LTAS. Results In this study, there was no significant difference between the control group and the clinical group in the low-frequency region (boys: 0–2720 Hz; girls: 0–2240 Hz). LTAS measurements showed a great difference between the control group and the clinical group in the middle-frequency region (boys: 2720–4000 Hz; girls: 2240–4000 Hz). We also found that the energy distributed in the clinical group was lower than that of the control group in the high-frequency region (4000 Hz–8000 Hz) in both boys and girls. Conclusions The results reveal a lack of flat region in the middle-frequency range in the clinical group (both boys and girls) in comparison with the control group. The results also reveal that there is no significant difference across the control group and the clinical group in the low-frequency region.