Consonant Proficiency From 18 Months to 10 Years in Swedish Children With Unilateral Cleft Lip and Palate.
Anette Lohmander, Inghild Riis Kjelsvik, Christina Persson
PMID 42741852WHAT IT FOUND
Children with unilateral cleft lip and palate showed no difference in consonant proficiency between surgical protocols at 3, 5 or 10 years.
Presence of oral stops at 18 months predicted higher later consonant proficiency.
Key findings
01There were no differences in consonant proficiency across the three surgical protocols at 3, 5 or 10 years of age.
02Consonant proficiency increased with age, with median values of 46.0% at 3 years, 79.5% at 5 years and 94.0% at 10 years.
03Children with oral stops at 18 months had predicted consonant proficiency scores approximately 22% points higher at 3 years, 34% points higher at 5 years and 16% points higher at 10 years.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only 32 children were analysed, and 23 of 55 enrolled children were excluded for missing complete data, so the study may not represent all children with unilateral cleft lip and palate. Group sizes differed by surgical protocol, limiting statistical power for protocol comparisons. Early consonant data at 18 months came from observation forms, and validity for number of different consonants was low; transcription reliability at 3 years varied. The study did not assess hypernasality or intelligibility, so velopharyngeal function was inferred from oronasal symptoms and speech deviances could have affected intelligibility. Only the number of speech therapy visits was analysed, not type, and secondary surgery was recorded only as having occurred or not, so associations cannot show treatment effects. The sample was Swedish-speaking, Caucasian, and from two centres, so results may not transfer to other languages, cleft types or care settings.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat the 18 month oral stop finding as a tested treatment target. The study observed an association in 32 children and did not test speech therapy or any intervention to produce oral stops.