Abstract: PURPOSE: To compare and analyze the effect of abnormal speech therapy in different age groups, in order to select appropriate time for speech therapy after surgical repair of velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI). METHODS: A total of 271 patients (4-25 years old) treated with speech therapy were divided into 4 groups based on age: infant (4-6 years old), enfant (7-12 years old), juvenile (13-17 years old) and youth group (18-25 years old). All patients were trained by speech therapy after pharyngoplasty. Before and after treatment, the clarity of speech and excessive nasal tone were detected with speech test table, and 2 indexes were analyzed with SPSS 16.0 software package. RESULTS: There were 62 infants, 59 enfants, 43 juveniles, and 107 youths. Speech clarity was 35.91%-98.22% in infant group, 38.11%-98.63% in enfant group, 45.59%-98.51% in juvenile group and 39.78%-98.21% in youth group. There was significant difference before therapy in each group, but no significant difference was found after therapy between each group. For excessive nasal tone, improvement of nasal tone was 70.97% in infant group, 62.71% in enfant group, 44.19% in juvenile group, and 43.93% in youth group. There was significant difference for nasal tone after treatment between each group. CONCLUSIONS: There was no relationship between speech clarity and age for speech therapy, but excessive nasal tone is closely related to the age. Therefore, the younger were treated with speech therapy the better RESULTS were obtained.

Key words: Velopharyngeal insufficiency, Speech clarity, Excessive nasal tone