Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe the pressure-flow characteristics of a large sample of speakers without cleft palate ranging in age from early childhood to young adulthood. Method: Speakers consisted of 223 children, teens, and adults without cleft palate categorized into five age groups: 6 through 8 years, 9 through 10, 11 through 12, 13 through 16, and 18 through 37 years. Speakers produced the syllables /mi/, /pi/, and /pA/, the word “hamper,” and the sentence “Peep into the hamper.” The pressure-flow method was used to determine oral air pressure, nasal airflow, and estimates of velopharyngeal (VP) orifice size associated with /m/ and /p/ production. Descriptive statistics were computed for each age group and speech sample. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedures were used to determine the effects of age, sex, and production level (word versus sentence) on the aerodynamic variables. Results: ANOVA procedures indicated significant main effects (p < .01) of age on most of the aerodynamic variables during production of /m/ and /p/. No significant main effects or interactions involving sex were found for any variable. Regardless of age, approximately 95% to 99% of the speakers exhibited airtight VP closure during /p/ at syllable level, depending upon the selected nasal airflow criterion. ANOVA procedures also indicated significant main effects of production level (word versus sentence) on each of the aerodynamic variables during the /mp/ sequence. These effects appeared to be related to speaking rate. Conclusions: The study suggests that speakers without cleft palate exhibit essentially complete VP closure during production of oral pressure consonants in isolated syllables, and developmental aspects of speech aerodynamics be considered during pressure-flow testing.

Objective: To determine the reliability and validity of a computer-mediated, 50-word intelligibility test designed to be a global measure of severity of speech disability in children with repaired cleft lip and palate. Design: A prospective between-group design was used with convenience sampling of patients from a university craniofacial center. Participants: A total of 38 children between the ages of 4 and 9 years participated. Of these, 22 had repaired cleft lip and palate; whereas, 16 had no clefts. Twenty adults served as listeners. Main outcome Measure(s): Speech intelligibility scores were calculated for repeated administrations of a single-word test based upon the number of correct orthographically transcribed words by four groups of five listeners per child. Measures of parallel forms, interlistener, and intralistener reliabilities were estimated; measures of construct validity were also determined. Results: All measures of reliability were adequate. Parallel forms reliability of the test based upon mean scores from five listeners per child was high (r= .97). Thirty-seven of 38 children had differences between forms of 11 percentage points or less. Construct validity of the test was shown by (1) significantly lower speech intelligibility scores for children with cleft lip and palate than controls and (2) a moderately high correlation (r= .79) between intelligibility scores and percent consonants correct for all children. Conclusions: A computerized, single-word intelligibility test was described that appears to be a reliable and valid measure of global speech deficits in children with cleft lip and palate. Additional development of the test may further facilitate standardized assessment of children with cleft lip and palate.

Purpose: The objective was to determine velopharyngeal (VP) status of stop consonants and vowels produced by young children with repaired cleft palate (CP) and typically developing (TD) children from 12 to 18 months of age. Method: Nasal ram pressure (NRP) was monitored in 9 children (5 boys, 4 girls) with repaired CP with or without cleft lip and 9 TD children (5 boys, 4 girls) at 12, 14, and 18 months of age. VP status was categorized as open or closed for oral stops and vowels in three contexts—consonant–vowel syllables, vowel–consonant–vowel syllables, and isolated vowels—on the basis of the presence or absence of positive nasal ram pressure. Results: At 12 months of age, TD children produced 98% of stops and vowels in syllables with VP closure throughout the entire segment compared with 81% of stops and vowels for children with CP ( p < .0001). There were no significant group differences at 14 or 18 months of age. Conclusions: TD children exhibit consistent VP closure for stop consonants and vowels at 12 months of age. Some children with repaired CP do not achieve consistent closure until 14 months of age, approximately 3 to 4 months following palate repair.

Purpose: Increased speaking rate is a commonly reported perceptual characteristic among males with fragile X syndrome (FXS). The objective of this preliminary study was to determine articulation rate—one component of perceived speaking rate—and vowel space characteristics of young males with FXS. Method: Young males with FXS ( n = 38), developmental age (DA)-matched males ( n = 21), and chronological age (CA)-matched males ( n = 16) were audiotaped while engaged in spontaneous conversation and a picture-naming task. Articulation rate in syllables per second during intelligible utterances and vowel space area/dispersion measures were acoustically determined for each speaker. Results: Males with FXS did not articulate significantly faster than CA-matched males. Area and dispersion of the acoustic vowel space also were similar between the 2 groups. Males with FXS, however, used significantly shorter utterances and had a tendency to pause less often than CA-matched males. In addition, males with FXS exhibited greater intraspeaker variability of formants associated with the vowel /a/. Conclusions: These preliminary findings suggest that articulation rate may not be a primary factor contributing to perceived speaking rate of males with FXS. Limitations of the study relative to speech production tasks and utterance intelligibility are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to re-examine the influence of gender on nasal coarticulation in normal speakers. Twenty adult speakers (10 men, 10 women) produced the vowel-nasal-vowel (VNV) sequence /ini/ within a carrier phrase using two stress patterns: (1) with equal stress placed on both syllables, and (2) with contrastive stress placed on the second syllable. A partitioned, circumferentially vented pneumotachograph mask and microphone were used to determine nasal airflow, ratios of nasal to oral-plus-nasal airflow, and sound pressure levels (SPLs) at the midpoints of the first and second vowels of the syllables. Volume ratios of nasal to oral-plus-nasal airflow that reflected the entire duration of the vowels were also obtained. Results indicated that all speakers except 1 woman exhibited nasal airflow at the midpoint of the first vowel when /ini/ was produced with equal stress; all speakers exhibited carryover nasal airflow during the second vowel. During contrastive stress, all speakers except 1 woman and 1 additional man exhibited anticipatory nasal airflow; all speakers exhibited carryover nasal airflow. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedures with repeated measures indicated significant main effects of syllable stress ( p < 0.001) relative to nasal airflow and ratios of nasal to oral-plus-nasal airflow. Regardless of the gender of the speakers, syllable stress resulted in reduced anticipatory and carryover nasal airflow during the first and second vowels of /ini/, respectively. The results suggest that (a) both men and women adhere to similar patterns of velar articulation, and (b) velopharyngeal closure during the vowel /i/ may be enhanced during stressed syllables. Implications relative to aspects of speech production and clinical practice are discussed.

Objectives: The primary purpose of this study was to determine the temporal characteristics of aerodynamic segments in the normal speech of children and adults without cleft palate. A secondary objective was to determine the withinspeaker variability of the segments. Method: Speakers consisted of 46 children aged 6 to 8 years, 41 older children aged 11 to 12 years, and 41 adults aged 18 to 37 years (total n = 128) who repeated the word “hamper” during continuous utterances. The pressure-flow method was used to determine the duration of six segments of the oral air pressure and nasal airflow pulses associated with the /mp/ sequence. Descriptive statistics, including coefficients of variation (COV), were computed for each segment as a function of age and sex of the speakers. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedures were used to determine the effects of age, sex, or both on the temporal variables. Results: ANOVAs indicated statistically significant main effects (p < .008) for age on five of the six temporal measures and for sex on three of the six measures. Five of the six COVs were also statistically significant for age. There were no statistically significant interactions between speaker age and sex for any measure. Conclusions: The results indicate distinct patterns of timing for aerodynamic segments of speech produced by children and adults. Overall, adults exhibited less temporal variability than children. The generally longer and more variable segments produced by children suggest diagnostic and treatment implications relative to speakers with velopharyngeal dysfunction.