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The purpose of the current research was to compare the lexical–grammatical skills of two-year-old children with and without repaired cleft palate (CP), accounting for the effect of variables such as vocabulary size at 18 months of age, maternal education level, and gender. Participants included 52 children with CP and 25 typically developing (TD) children. The CDI-WS was employed to measure vocabulary and grammatical skills. Significant differences were observed between the CP and TD groups with respect to the number of words, word forms (irregular nouns and verbs), word endings (overuse of plural (-s) and past tense (-ed) markers), the mean number of morphemes in their three longest utterances (M3L), and sentence complexity. In addition, compared to TD children, significantly smaller proportions of children with CP were observed to use words to talk about past and future events or use words to talk about an absent object. The difference between the CP and TD groups in terms of the size of vocabulary at 24 months of age remained statistically significant in the multivariable model. Among all predictors, the size of vocabulary at 18 months of age was identified as the most robust precursor of lexical and grammatical skills at 24 months of age. Gender was identified as a predictor of the M3L measure as an index for syntactic ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study investigated vocabulary growth from 18 to 24 months of age in young children with repaired cleft palate (CP), children with otitis media, and typically developing (TD) children. In addition, the contributions of factors such as hearing level, middle ear status, size of consonant inventory, maternal education level, and gender to the development of expressive vocabulary were explored. Method: Vocabulary size of 40 children with repaired CP, 29 children with otitis media, and 25 TD children was measured using the parent report on MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories: Words and Sentences (Fenson et al., 2007) at 18 and 24 months of age. All participants underwent sound field audiometry at 12 months of age and tympanometry at 18 months of age. A multiple linear regression with and without covariates was used to model vocabulary growth from 18 to 24 months of age across the 3 groups. Results: Children with CP produced a significantly smaller number of words at 24 months of age and showed significantly slower rate of vocabulary growth from 18 to 24 months of age when compared to TD children (p < .05). Although middle ear status was found to predict vocabulary growth from 18 to 24 months of age across the 3 groups (p < .05), the confidence interval was large, suggesting the effect should be interpreted with caution. Conclusions: Children with CP showed slower expressive vocabulary growth relative to their age-matched TD peers. Middle ear status may be associated with development of vocabulary skills for some children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The main objective was to examine temporal parameters of stop-plosives in Persian-speaking children with repaired cleft lip and palate (CLP). Method: Eleven children with repaired bilateral CLP and 20 typically-developing children participated in the study. Stop-gap duration (SGD) and voice-onset time (VOT) were measured based on digital waveform and spectrographic displays. Result: Separate linear mixed model analyses showed significantly longer SGDs for children with CLP for all plosives in word-mid and final positions. Furthermore, children with CLP tend to produce longer VOTs for all voiceless plosives. Conclusion: Persian-speaking children with repaired CLP prolong stop-gap segments, similar to findings reported for English-speaking children with CLP. Prolonged segments may be due to an active strategy to increase oral air pressure and/or improve perceptual accuracy of speech segments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose: The objective was to determine velopharyngeal (VP) status of stop consonants and vowels produced by young children with repaired cleft palate (CP) and typically developing (TD) children from 12 to 18 months of age. Method: Nasal ram pressure (NRP) was monitored in 9 children (5 boys, 4 girls) with repaired CP with or without cleft lip and 9 TD children (5 boys, 4 girls) at 12, 14, and 18 months of age. VP status was categorized as open or closed for oral stops and vowels in three contexts—consonant–vowel syllables, vowel–consonant–vowel syllables, and isolated vowels—on the basis of the presence or absence of positive nasal ram pressure. Results: At 12 months of age, TD children produced 98% of stops and vowels in syllables with VP closure throughout the entire segment compared with 81% of stops and vowels for children with CP (p < .0001). There were no significant group differences at 14 or 18 months of age. Conclusions: TD children exhibit consistent VP closure for stop consonants and vowels at 12 months of age. Some children with repaired CP do not achieve consistent closure until 14 months of age, approximately 3 to 4 months following palate repair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine whether children with repaired cleft palate and adequate velopharyngeal closure exhibit abrupt laryngeal engagement during stop plosive-vowel transitions as compared with children without cleft palate. Design: A prospective group design was used with convenience sampling of patients at a university craniofacial center. Participants: Participants were 25 children (15 boys, 10 girls) with repaired cleft palate (mean age = 10.9 years, standard deviation - 1.5 years) and 20 children (10 boys, 10 girls) without cleft palate (mean age = 10.8 years, standard deviation = 1.8 years). All children with cleft palate had adequate velopharyngeal closure as determined by aerodynamic testing. Main Outcome Measures: (1) Peak oral airflow was determined during the release of /t/ in the word "two" during a counting task. (2) An index of laryngeal engagement defined as the ratio of the maximum oral airflow declination to peak oral airflow was calculated during the release of /t/. (3) Sound pressure level was determined during the vowel of the word "two." Results: Children with cleft palate exhibited significantly more negative laryngeal engagement ratios (i.e., more abrupt adduction) (P= .002) and greater sound pressure level (P = .049) than controls. There was a significant negative relationship between laryngeal engagement and sound pressure level for all children (r=-.428, P = .003). Conclusions: Children with repaired cleft palate and adequate velopharyngeal function appear to use a strategy of abrupt laryngeal adduction during stop plosive-vowel transitions. This strategy--perhaps learned even prior to palate surgery--may help to achieve either adequate sound pressure level and/or velopharyngeal closure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spectral moment analysis (SMA) was used to describe voiceless alveolar and velar stop-plosive production in Persian-speaking children with repaired cleft lip and palate (CLP). Participants included 11 children with bilateral CLP who were undergoing maxillary expansion and 20 children without any type of orofacial clefts. Four of the children with CLP also exhibited backed (palatal) placement for alveolar stops. All children produced consonant-vowel-consonant nonsense words that targeted the plosives /t/ and /k/. SMA revealed that children with CLP had significantly reduced first spectral moment of /t/ and /t/-/k/ difference. Children with CLP who produced palatal stops for alveolar targets also had lower but non-significant first spectral moments for /t/ as compared with children with CLP who did not produce palatal stops. The results are consistent with previously reported findings for English-speaking children with repaired CLP and further suggest that maxillary arch constriction may be a contributing factor for (a) reduced spectral distinction of alveolar targets and/or (b) palatal substitutions for alveolar targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]