RHINOMETRY AND OPEN-MOUTH POSTURE IN YOUNG-CHILDREN

A biracial sample of 348 elementary school children who were in the fi rst grade were assessed for open-mouth posture (OMP) in the natural en vironment. In addition, rhinometry was performed on 296 of the childre n. Means were computed for percent OMP and cross-sectional nasal airwa y. Results indicated that, in general, these children exhibited relati vely high rates of OMP. Boys displayed significantly greater OMP than girls, and black children showed significantly larger cross-sectional nasal areas than white children. A significant correlation between OMP and nasal area only was evident for children exhibiting OMP during mo re than 80% of the observation intervals. The implications of the find ings were discussed.