title: The impact of early palatal obturation on consonant development in babies with unrepaired cleft palate.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether palatal obturators enhance consonant development during babbling for babies with unrepaired cleft palate.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fourteen babies with cleft palate who had worn anterior palatal obturators prior to palatal surgery were matched to 14 unobturated babies according to cleft type, sex, and age at time of presurgical evaluation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Spontaneous vocalizations of the obturated and unobturated groups were compared to determine whether differences were evident in size of consonant inventory as well as place and manner of consonant production.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Paired t tests revealed no significant differences between the groups in size of consonant inventory or place and manner of consonant production. There was a trend for babies in the obturated group to produce more glottal consonants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In general, the findings of this study suggested that palatal obturators do not appear to facilitate production of anterior palatal consonants during babbling.
authors.affiliation: Division of Communication Disorders, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, USA. mhardinj@uwyo.edu.
authors.forename: Mary A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hardin-Jones
authors.forename: Kathy L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Chapman
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: Kelli Ann
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Halter
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schulte
authors.forename: Jeffrey A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Dean
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Havlik
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Goldstein
mesh_terms: D000158:Acoustic Impedance Tests; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002663:Child Language; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D016555:Matched-Pair Analysis; D010158:Palatal Obturators; D010700:Phonetics; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013637:Tape Recording