Introduction. Structural changes in lips, tongue, and palate may cause speech disorders. Occurrence and type of misarticulations in bilabial [p], [b] and labiodental [f], [v] consonants in school age and older cleft children were analyzed. Materials and methods. The patients included 5 with cleft lip without cleft alveolus [CL (A)], 22 with unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) and 22 with bilateral cleft lip and palate (BCLP). All were native Romanian speakers with normal hearing and no known syndrome or anomalies possibly affecting speech or psychomotor retardation. Results and discussion. The occurrence,
severity and number of misarticulations of sounds increased with the severity of the cleft, being highest in (BCLP) and lowest in [CL (A)]. The sounds were misarticulated, distorted and substituted, or both distorted and substituted. Conclusions. The first assessment of
communication skills should begin in infancy, focusing on language skills and emerging sound production.
- cleft lip/palate.
- consonant misarticulation