Factors affecting articulation skills in children with velocardiofacial syndrome and children with cleft palate or velopharyngeal dysfunction: a preliminary report.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the influence of speech perception, cognition, and implicit phonological learning on articulation skills of children with velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS) and children with cleft palate or velopharyngeal dysfunction (VPD).


METHODS
Cross-sectional group experimental design.


METHODS
Eight children with VCFS and five children with nonsyndromic cleft palate or VPD.


METHODS
All children participated in a phonetic inventory task, speech perception task, implicit priming nonword repetition task, conversational sample, nonverbal intelligence test, and hearing screening. Speech tasks were scored for percentage of phonemes correctly produced. Group differences and relations among measures were examined using nonparametric statistics.


RESULTS
Children in the VCFS group demonstrated significantly poorer articulation skills and lower standard scores of nonverbal intelligence compared with the children with cleft palate or VPD. There were no significant group differences in speech perception skills. For the implicit priming task, both groups of children were more accurate in producing primed nonwords than unprimed nonwords. Nonverbal intelligence and severity of velopharyngeal inadequacy for speech were correlated with articulation skills.


CONCLUSIONS
In this study, children with VCFS had poorer articulation skills compared with children with cleft palate or VPD. Articulation difficulties seen in the children with VCFS did not appear to be associated with speech perception skills or the ability to learn new phonological representations. Future research should continue to examine relationships between articulation, cognition, and velopharyngeal dysfunction in a larger sample of children with cleft palate and VCFS.
Baylis
Adriane L
AL
Masters Family Speech and Hearing Clinic, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI 53201, USA. abaylis@chw.org
Munson
Benjamin
B
Moller
Karlind T
KT
D001184:Articulation Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004062:DiGeorge Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006309:Hearing / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology; D014681:Velopharyngeal Insufficiency / Q000503:physiopathology*