Speech production assessment of mouth breathing children with hypertrophy of palatines and/or pharyngeal tonsils

ABSTRACT Objective: to evaluate the speech sound production of children diagnosed with a palatine mouth breathing and / or hypertrophic pharyngeal tonsil and compare it to that of a group of children that do not show any respiratory alterations, besides associating with age and sex. Methods: a quantitative, cross-sectional, analytical and observational research. Children from five to twelve years old have took part of the study, 50 of them diagnosed as mouth breathers (research group - RG) and 50 with no respiratory alteration (control group - CG). Anamnesis and evaluation based on MBGR protocol was performed, focusing on the speech, supported by figures and with samples of automatic and spontaneous speech. Results: there were no differences between the groups, taking into account the parents' complaint. Speech alterations, such as phonetic deflection, lingual interposition and distortions, and occlusion alterations were more frequent in RG. Speech alterations prevailed for males in 83% and the average age related to speech did not show any significance. Conclusion: mouth breathing children present more alterations of speech sounds than those presented with no respiratory alteration, regardless of the age group, being more common in male children.

摘要
目的：评估经诊断为口呼吸及/或咽部扁桃体肥大儿童的语音发声表现，并与无任何呼吸异常的儿童群体进行对比，同时分析其与年龄、性别的关联。
方法：本研究为定量、横断面分析性观察研究。研究对象为5至12岁儿童，其中50名经诊断为口呼吸者（研究组RG），50名无呼吸异常者（对照组CG）。所有受试者均接受基于MBGR方案的病史采集与评估，以语音为核心评估维度，辅以图像资料，并采集自动化语音与自发性语音样本。
结果：就家长主诉而言，两组间无显著差异。研究组中语音异常（如语音偏斜、舌插入式发音与语音畸变）及咬合异常的发生率更高。83%的语音异常病例为男性，与语音相关的平均年龄无统计学意义。
结论：无论年龄组别如何，口呼吸儿童的语音异常发生率均高于无呼吸异常儿童，且该现象在男性儿童中更为常见。