CEPHALOMETRIC ANALYSIS IN SPEECH AND HEARING IMPAIRED CHILDREN.

Corresponding Author:
Dr. Manju S,
Assistant Professor in Anatomy,
Government Medical College,
Thiruvananthapuram.
E-mail: poojagopan6@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND

Speech and hearing impairment, if identified early in life, can help rehabilitation better. The study aims to find out any variations in the cephalometric parameters between speech and hearing impaired children in the age group of 5-15 years and whether these parameters can be used to diagnose speech and hearing impairment.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A comparative study was conducted on 112 speech and hearing impaired children and 119 normal children. Cephalometric parameters were assessed and various indices calculated. The indices were compared and the data was analysed.

RESULTS

Statistically significant results were obtained with an observation that congenitally speech and hearing impaired children had a small but high head with a broad face below the frontal region as compared to normal children. The relevance of the study lies in the fact that screening of the cephalometric indices of newborn help in identifying speech and hearing disorders at a very early age.

CONCLUSION

It was observed that in speech and hearing impaired children, the head remains smaller, but the facial breadth below frontal region increases. Similar studies conducted at different centre could help us standardise cephalometric parameters. Once done, this could be extended to intrauterine studies and help in prenatal diagnosis and prediction of speech and hearing impairment.

KEYWORDS

Cephalometry, Speech and Hearing Impaired Children.