Performance of children with severe to profound auditory impairment in instrumentally guided reduction of nasal resonance.

Twelve students at the Kentucky School for the Deaf were studied using a bioelectronic instrument to provide visual feedback of the degree of nasal resonance, thereby guiding them toward reduction of excessively nasal voice quality. The subjects were given a maximum of fourteen 20-min sessions of training. The results indicated that the feedback information was used very effectively by five subjects and somewhat effectively by four others. The remaining three subjects did not demonstrate a consistent relationship between periods of training and reduction in nasal resonance. Pre- and post-training testing using stimuli not included in the training material demonstrated significant generalization of the nasalance control gained in the training sessions.