title: Parental perception vs. professional assessment of speech changes following premature loss of maxillary primary incisors.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study's purpose was to compare parental perceptions of children's speech changes with a professional speech assessment following premature extractions of maxillary primary incisors (PEMPI).
  
  
  METHODS
  Healthy 5- to 6-year-olds, with no cognitive and speech  delay and who received PEMPI between the ages of 2 and 4 years old at a university-based clinic, were recruited for the study. First, their parents took part in a telephone interview regarding their perceptions of speech changes following the extractions. The children were then invited to  undergo individual speech evaluations by a certified speech and language pathologist.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 204 patients identified from the database, 57 parental interviews were completed. Sixty percent (34) felt their children sounded different following extractions, and 65% (37) reported difficulty  with pronunciation of the "s" sound. For children who were perceived by their parents to sound different, 46% had problems pronouncing words with the letters s and z. For parents who did not perceive speech changes, none of the children had problems with s and z as determined by  the professionally conduced speech evaluations (Fisher exact test P=.02).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Children who undergo premature extractions of maxillary primary incisors show problems articulating words containing s and z, and there is an agreement between parental perceptions and actual disarticulations  detected from a professional assessment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Dentistry, University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla, USA. aadewumi@dental.ufl.edu
authors.forename: Abimbola O
authors.initials: AO
authors.lastname: Adewumi
authors.forename: Camille
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Horton
authors.forename: Marcio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guelmann
authors.forename: Virginia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Dixon-Wood
authors.forename: Susan P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: McGorray
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007180:Incisor; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D013060:Speech