The interrelationships between ratings of speech and facial acceptability in persons with cleft palate

This study was conducted to determine (a) if untrained observers could reliably rate the speech and facial acceptability of young adults with clefts of the lip and/or palate; and (b) if there were differences between the ratings of speech acceptability and facial acceptability according to sex of observer, presentation mode, or speaker effect. Thirty untrained young adult observers rated the speech and facial acceptability of 20 speakers with cleft palate using a 7-point bipolar adjective scale. Judgments of speech acceptability were made from an auditory-only stimulus and then from a combined audio-visual stimulus. Judgments of facial acceptability were made from a visual-only stimulus and then from a combined audio-visual stimulus. Multivariate analysis of variance, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients, and a posteriori multiple range tests were used for data analyses. Results indicated that untrained observers were reliable in rating both speech and facial acceptability (r .65-.97). The effects of speaker and interaction between speaker and presentation mode were significant at .01 levels of confidence. Judgments made of facial acceptability were generally more positive, leading to the conclusion that speech is generally judged more negatively in speakers with cleft palate, at least by untrained observers. The interaction between speech and facial acceptability was not significant.