Browsing by Author "Mäkelin, Minnea"

Abstract Introduction: Children with nonsyndromic cleft lip and/or palate have smaller consonant inventories, less accurate articulation, and more speech errors than their peers without clefts. Speech and dental arch relationships have widely been the primary outcome measure of palate repair. Aims: The aim was to evaluate the occurrence of misarticulations of the Finnish alveolar consonants /s/, /l/ and /r/ and their possible relationship with maxillary dental arch dimensions in 5-year-old children with unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP). Materials and methods: Subgroup analysis was conducted within a multicenter controlled trial of primary surgery (Scandcleft project). 46 Caucasian Finnish-speaking patients (29 boys) with non-syndromic complete UCLP were evaluated retrospectively. Production of the Finnish alveolar consonants /s/, /l/ and /r/ was assessed from standardized audio recordings at the mean age of 5.06 years (range 4.82-5.89). Articulation errors were categorized as either correct, distortion, substitution, or omission. Maxillary dental arch measurements were assessed using the technique of Moorrees from plaster casts taken at the same age. Additionally, the anterior and posterior palatal heights were measured. Aspin-Welch Unequal-Variance T-Test, Equal-Variance T-Test and Mann-Whitney U test were used in the statistical analyses. Kappa statistics were calculated to assess reliability. Results: Only one of the children articulated all the studied sounds correctly. 93.2% misarticulated /r/, 63.0% misarticulated /s/ and 39.1% misarticulated /l/. Distortions and substitutions were common. Omissions were sparse. There was no relationship between the occurrence of alveolar consonant misarticulations and the maxillary dental arch dimensions. Intra- and interrater agreements varied between moderate to excellent. Conclusions: Children with UCLP have a notable amount of alveolar consonant misarticulations. Maxillary dental arch dimensions were not related to the misarticulation of /s/, /l/ or /r/ in 5-year-old children with UCLP.