Speech input processing in children born with cleft palate: A systematic literature review with narrative synthesis.

The review included only six studies, and the evidence was too limited to draw firm conclusions. The studies used different speech input processing tasks, so results cannot be combined or directly compared. Cleft groups were small and mixed, including different cleft types and some participants with non-cleft velopharyngeal dysfunction or velocardiofacial syndrome. Only a few studies had the primary aim of comparing children born with clefts to non-cleft controls. Grey literature and non-English studies were excluded, which may miss relevant work. Hearing and middle ear history were measured in different ways, often by parent report or medical records, so associations with speech input processing are difficult to compare. No reliable assessment method for speech input processing in children with speech sound disorders was established.

Do not conclude that all children born with cleft palate with or without cleft lip have speech input processing deficits or that testing these skills improves speech outcomes. The review found only six small, heterogeneous studies, and differences were limited to specific tasks and to children with posterior articulation errors in the Whitehill et al. study.