Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) in the treatment of hypernasality

Provides a progress report and preliminary data pertaining to a study designed to test the efficacy of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy in reducing hypernasality. The CPAP instrumentation consists of an air pressure generating source and a hose and mask assembly. The mask is placed over the nose of the subject and the increased air pressure is delivered directly to the nasal cavities. Specially constructed speech utterances of the form VNCV (vowel-nasal consonant-consonant-vowel), such as /insi/, are used for drillwork. These nonsense words are designed to lower the velum during the nasal consonant (N) followed by a rigorous elevation of the velum for the following pressure consonant (C)