Auditory-Perceptual and Acoustic Characteristics of Sibilant and Vowel Sounds in Children with Cleft Palate Undergoing Rapid Palatal Expansion.
Tim Bressmann, Jordan Chiantelli-Mosebach, Doris Chui Shan Chung and 4 others
PMID 41091657WHAT IT FOUND
Sibilant and high-front vowel errors spiked immediately after expander insertion but returned to baseline within a month.
However, hypernasality scores rose significantly at the six-month follow-up, suggesting expansion may worsen nasal emission in some children.
Key findings
01Sibilant error rates doubled from 28.8% at baseline to 48.2% immediately after expander insertion, then tapered off to pretreatment levels by follow-up.
02While consonant errors improved, hypernasal vowel productions increased to 53.6% and nasalance scores rose to 38.0% at the final follow-up appointment.
03Cluster analysis showed that children with lower baseline error rates experienced a higher mean error rate at follow-up, while those with higher baseline errors improved.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study used repeated nonwords rather than connected speech, so findings may not fully reflect everyday communication. Auditory-perceptual ratings were made by consensus between student listeners without formal reliability testing. The sample was small (28 children) and recruited via convenience sampling. Anatomical factors such as the degree of expansion or fistula size were not controlled for in the speech analysis.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. Visits were supported by Mitacs Globalink awards, but the funder had no role in the study design or analysis.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that the return of consonant errors to baseline means the child's speech has fully recovered. Nasalance scores and perceived hypernasality increased at the six-month follow-up, indicating that nasal emission may worsen even after articulation adapts to the device.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →