title: Spelling Processes of Children With Nonsyndromic Cleft Lip and/or Palate: A Preliminary Study.
abstract: Objective :  To compare the cognitive-linguistic processes underlying spelling performance of children with cleft lip and/or palate with those of typically developing children. Design :  An assessment battery including tests of hearing, articulation, verbal short-term and working memory, and phonological awareness, as well as word and nonword spelling, was administered to both groups. Participants :  A total of 15 children with nonsyndromic cleft lip and/or palate were case-matched by age and sex to 15 typically developing children. The children were aged between 6 and 8 years and were bilingual, with English the dominant language. Results :  Wilcoxon signed-rank tests revealed that the performance of children with cleft lip and/or palate was significantly poorer on phoneme deletion and nonword spelling (P < .05) compared with typically developing children. Spearman correlation analyses revealed different relationships between the cognitive-linguistic and spelling measures for the cleft lip and/or palate and typically developing groups. Conclusions :  Children with cleft lip and/or palate underachieve in phonological awareness and spelling skills. To facilitate early intervention for literacy problems, speech-language pathologists should routinely assess the cognitive-linguistic processing of children with cleft lip and/or palate, especially phonological awareness, as part of their case management protocols.
authors.forename: Karen Shi Mei
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Selena Ee-Li
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Young
authors.forename: Susan Jane Rickard
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Liow
authors.forename: Alison Anne
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Purcell
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002971:Cleft Lip / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D010699:Phonation / Q000502:physiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012846:Singapore; D013062:Speech Articulation Tests; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*
keywords: cleft; nonword; phonological awareness; spelling; verbal memory