A mixed-methods pilot randomized control trial of ultrasound visual biofeedback versus standard intervention for children with cleft palate ± cleft lip: Parents' and children's perspectives.

Background: Ultrasound visual biofeedback (UVBF) has the potential to be useful for the treatment of compensatory errors in speakers with cleft palate ± lip (CP±L), but there is little research on its effectiveness, or on how acceptable families find the technique. This study reports on parents' and children's perspectives on taking part in a pilot randomized control trial of UVBF compared with articulation intervention.

Aims: To determine the acceptability of randomization, UVBF and articulation intervention to families.

An Ultrasound Investigation of Tongue Dorsum Raising in Children with Cleft Palate +/- Cleft Lip.

Objective: This study aimed to determine whether increased raising of the back of the tongue is evident in children with repaired cleft palate with or without cleft lip (CP+/-CL). We hypothesized that children with CP+/-CL would show increased raising of the tongue dorsum, a compensatory pattern.

Method: Secondary data analysis of mid-sagittal ultrasound tongue imaging data from 31 children with CP+/-CL and 29 typically developing children were used.

Protocol for SonoSpeech Cleft Pilot: a mixed-methods pilot randomized control trial of ultrasound visual biofeedback versus standard intervention for children with cleft lip and palate.

Background: Children with cleft lip and palate can continue to have problems producing clear speech after surgery. This can lead to social, emotional, and educational challenges. Typical treatment involves teaching children the correct tongue movements to produce speech sounds.

The Impact of Real-Time Articulatory Information on Phonetic Transcription: Ultrasound-Aided Transcription in Cleft Lip and Palate Speech.

Objective: This study investigated whether adding an additional modality, namely ultrasound tongue imaging (UTI), to perception-based phonetic transcription impacted on the identification of compensatory articulations and on interrater reliability.

Patients And Methods: Thirty-nine English-speaking children aged 3-12 years with cleft lip and palate (CLP) were recorded producing repetitions of /aCa/ for all places of articulation with simultaneous audio recording and probe-stabilized ultrasound (US). Three types of transcriptions were performed: (1) descriptive observations from the live US by the clinician recording the data, (2) US-aided transcription (UA) by two US-trained clinicians, and (3) traditional phonetic transcription by two CLP specialists from audio recording.

22q11 deletion syndrome: Parents' and children's experiences of educational and healthcare provision in the United Kingdom.

22q11 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) is a genetic syndrome, prevalence around 1:4000-1:6000 live births, with a complex array of associated features, impacting on healthcare and educational support. This study reports the perceptions of families and individuals with 22q11DS in relation to these needs. Individuals and families of those with 22q11DS were approached though two national charities - the Max Appeal and 22Crew.

Clicks produced as compensatory articulations in two adolescents with velocardiofacial syndrome.

Objective: To report perceptual and dynamic articulatory electropalatography data on clicks produced as compensatory articulations by two adolescents (S1 and S2) with velocardiofacial syndrome and velopharyngeal dysfunction.

Results: The perceptual analysis showed that both speakers produced click substitutions for English targets /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/, and S2 additionally produced clicks for /p/, /b/, and /tintegral/, //. The adolescents produced a range of clicks, which varied in placement (bilabial, dental, alveolar, palatal), voicing (voiced, voiceless), and nasality (nasal, nonnasal).

Tongue-palate contact during selected vowels in children with cleft palate.

This study reports tongue-palate contact recorded using electropalatography (EPG) during five vowels /i/, /theta/, /I/, /o/ and /backwards c/ spoken by school-aged children with cleft palate and a group of normal speakers. All the children had articulation disorders affecting consonants but none had obvious vowel errors. Two measures were taken from the EPG data at the temporal midpoint of the vowels.

Articulatory placement for /t/, /d/, /k/ and /g/ targets in school age children with speech disorders associated with cleft palate.

This study used electropalatography (EPG) to identify place of articulation for lingual plosive targets /t/, /d/, /k/ and /g/ in the speech of 15 school age children with repaired cleft palate. Perceptual judgements indicated that all children had correct velar placement for /k/, /g/ targets, but /t/, /d/ targets were produced as errors involving palatalization or velar placement. An EPG classification scheme identified alveolar, palatal and velar placement.

Labial-lingual double articulations in speakers with cleft palate.

Objective: Labial-lingual double articulations (LLDAs) are speech errors involving simultaneous valving at the lips and in the linguapalatal region. This study investigates the frequency of LLDAs occurring for /p/, /b/, and /m/ targets and describes the linguapalatal contact patterns involved in these abnormal articulations.

Design: A retrospective study involving analysis of articulatory data from all speakers with cleft palate recorded at a research center over a 10-year period.