Parental and child preference for speech produced by children with velopharyngeal incompetence.

Three groups of parents and three groups of children listened to 14 pairs of audio-tape-recorded words twice. One word of each pair was produced with compensatory articulation, and the other was produced with audible nasal emission. Each subject indicated which word in each pair sounded better. All three groups of parents and all three groups of children chose the words produced with compensatory articulation as sounding better more frequently than they chose the words produced with nasal emission. Individual parents and respective children did not always have the same preferences. In all instances where there was agreement, both parent and child chose words with compensatory articulation more frequently than words with nasal emission.