Abstract: Objective　To find an objective indexto describe the severity of hypernasality in cleft palate patients through speech spectroanalysis.Methods　60 audio records of cleft palate patients were analyzed by spectroanalysis, the relative energy in low frequency area (REL) was calculated in the LPC spectrogram. One experienced speech therapist and two nonprofessionals made perceptual judgments of the same records. Spearman correlation analysiswas conducted to test if the 3 groups of data have signifi- cant correlations.Results　RELhad significant correlation with professional judgments (correlation coefficient was 0·272,P< 0·05) and nonprofessional judgments (correlation coefficient was 0·274,P<0·05).Conclusion　RELcan be used as one ob- jective reference in the judgment of the severity of hypernasality.

Key words: cleftpalate, hypernasality, spectroanalysis, perceptualjudgment