Language Input of Mothers Interacting with Their Young Children with Cleft Lip and Palate

Abstract

Maternal language addressed to 1-, 2-, and 3-year-old children with cleft lip and palate was studied. Videotaped interactions were obtained from 23 mother-child dyads (13 mother-cleft lip and palate child dyads, and 13 mother noncleft child dyads) during free play. Results indicated more similarities than differences in maternal language characteristics for the two groups of mothers.

Longitudinal Study of Vocal Development and Language Environments in Infants With Cleft Palate

“…This study showed that infants with CP produced more child vocalization counts from the LENA automated analysis than infants without at 4 to 6 months and 7 to 9 months but not at later ages. This result was unexpected as previous studies have either reported that children with CP produce fewer vocalizations than children without CP (Philips and Kent, 1984; Chapman, 1991; Ha, 2018) or significant group differences have not been found in volubility (Chapman et al, 2001; Scherer et al, 2008). Likewise, conversational turn count from the LENA automated analysis showed a significant interaction effect between groups and age, where infants with CP showed higher conversational turn counts at 4 to 6 months than infants without CP, but not at later ages.…”

“…Perhaps as should be expected given these deficits of speech and hearing mechanisms, the literature has consistently reported that infants with CP show late onset of canonical babbling and fewer consonant types in their inventories of prespeech vocalizations than typically developing infants (Chapman, 1991; Willadsen and Enemark, 2000; Chapman et al, 2001; Ha, 2018; Zajac et al, 2021). For example, Chapman et al (2001) reported that only 57% of infants with CP reached the canonical babbling stage by 9 months compared to 93% of their age-matched peers without CP.…”

“…However, the literature on children with CP provides mixed evidence about volubility. Some anecdotal reports have indicated that children with CP produce fewer vocalizations than children without CP (Philips and Kent, 1984; Chapman, 1991; Ha, 2018), although other studies have found no significant group differences (Chapman et al, 2001; Scherer et al, 2008). These contradictory results might be associated with methodological issues, such as differing sizes of samples.…”

“…Infants born with cleft palate (CP) are highly likely to experience limitations in vocal development due to structural anomalies in their oral and velopharyngeal mechanisms. They tend to demonstrate restricted exploration of supraglottal structures, especially the anterior parts of the oral cavity, which may lead some infants to develop a preference for specific sounds (ie, posterior sounds) or compensatory articulatory patterns even in prelinguistic vocalization (Grunwell and Russell, 1987; Chapman, 1991; O’Gara et al, 1994; Chapman et al, 2001; Willadsen, 2013). Although infants with CP often show a structurally competent velopharyngeal mechanism after palatal surgery, their ability to exhibit consistent velopharyngeal closure takes longer compared to in typically developing infants during the first 2 years of life (Krochmal et al, 2013; Eshghi et al, 2017; Bunton and Hoit, 2018; Zajac et al, 2021).…”