[Intelligibility of children with bilateral and unilateral cleft lip and palate]

Data about the effect of unilateral or bilateral cleft lip and palate (CLP) on speech quality are inconsistent. In this study we firstly quantify the intelligibility of children with unilateral and bilateral CLP objectively by means of automatic speech recognition system (ASR).

Speech data of 72 German speaking children (8.7+/-3.0 years) with CLP thereof 17 children with bilateral CLP, 23 with CLP on the right side, and 32 on the left, were compared. A group of 159 children aged 9.1+/-2.9 years served as control group. To quantify intelligibility we calculated the word recognition rate (WR) as the percentage of correctly recognized words of a standardized speech test (PLAKSS).

Between the 3 cleft groups, there was no significant difference in WR. Compared to the control group (WR mean 63.5%+/-12.1%), the patient group (WR mean 48.1%+/-16.3%) shows significant lower WR (p< 0.001). The WR rises with increasing age in the control group and in the patient groups with unilateral cleft significantly. This couldn't be observed in the children with bilateral CLP. In this group the males showed a significantly higher WR than the females. In the control group as in the patient groups with unilateral cleft there is no significant difference between girls and boys.

Despite the greater extent of the malformation of children with a bilateral CLP, there is no significant difference to the children with only a unilateral cleft lip and palate.