A preliminary study on speech therapy for marginal velopharyngeal insufficiency.

PURPOSE: To investigate the feature and therapy of patients with marginal velopharyngeal insufficiency(MVPI). METHODS: Fifteen patients (10 males, 5 females, age ranging form 8 to 25 years, mean age of 17.6 years) with MVPI were selected. All the patients received behavior therapy and speech therapy. Chinese speech intelligibility test and blow test were carried out before and after the therapy. RESULTS: All cases achieved satisfactory results through 12 to 20 weeks of speech therapy. The results of speech intelligibility test and blow test after therapy were better than those before therapy. CONCLUSIONS: For patients with MVPI, a satisfactory result and pronunciation improvement could be obtained through a series of behavior therapy and a good velopharyngeal closure. Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (81070813) and Research Found of Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality(08DZ2271100). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]