Effects of visibility of a prepalatal cleft on the evaluation of speech

Sixty speech pathology students participated in a double-blind factorial experiment to assess the impact of a distorted lip and nares on the evaluation of various speech dimensions. The subjects were randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups. All Ss read identical case studies about a child born with a cleft. One of two photographs was attached to each case study. One was an accurate photography of a girl with post-operative disfigurement. The second was of the same girl, but it had been retouched to eliminate the disfigurement. Half of the Ss in each photograph condition listened to a recording of a normal speaker while the other half of the Ss listened to a nasal speaker. The results of various analyses indicated that a visible disfigurement significantly affected the Ss evaluation of nasal speech, increasing their perception of nasality and of the need for speech therapy.