The development of consonant articulation in infants with cleft palate.

概要

論文の詳細を見る
In order to study the development of speech in infants with cleft palate, we investigated the development of consonant articulation in two cases (A, B) with cleft soft palate and in two cases (C, D) with cleft lip and palate before and after palatoplasty. We taperecorded their consonants in meaningful speech sounds and transcribed them.We made the following observations: (1) The frequency of consonants in meaningful speech sounds did not vary with the type of cleft or the timing of palatoplasty, and increased radically in the latter half of the second year and the first half of the third year. (2) Glottal stops occurred in the pre-palatoplasty periods but had almost disappeared three to ten months after palatoplasty in cases A, B, and C, whose velopharyngeal function was competent. (3) The speech sounds of these three cases were judged to be intelligible when the numbers of glottal stops decreased, the numbers of voiceless stops accounted for over 50% of all stops, and bilabial voiceless stops [p] appeared.