Speech Production Errors in Children With Cleft Palate With or Without Cleft Lip

Area of Science:

• Speech-Language Pathology
• Craniofacial Anomalies
• Pediatric Audiology

Background:

• Children with cleft palate with or without cleft lip (CP±L) often experience speech production errors.
• Understanding the types and frequency of these errors is crucial for effective intervention.
• Previous research has explored various aspects of speech in this population, but specific error patterns require further elucidation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the frequency of different speech production errors in children with CP±L.
• To investigate individual and treatment-related characteristics associated with these speech errors.
• To provide insights for clinical monitoring and intervention strategies in cleft care.

Main Methods:

• Included 56 children with nonsyndromic CP±L, aged 4;0 to 7;11.
• Collected audio recordings of a sentence repetition task.
• Transcribed and coded speech errors using narrow transcription.

Main Results:

• Children produced an average of 18 speech errors per sample.
• Phonological errors were most frequent (9 errors/sample), followed by anterior oral (4 errors/sample) and non-oral compensatory errors (3 errors/sample).
• Age correlated with phonological errors, cleft type with anterior oral errors, and hypernasality with non-oral compensatory and passive errors.

Conclusions:

• Phonological errors are the most common speech errors in children with CP±L.
• Specific individual and treatment characteristics are linked to particular error types.
• Findings inform clinical practice by identifying prevalent errors and associated factors for monitoring in cleft care.