ABSTRACT

The aim of the study was to assess the audiologic and the speech status of operated unilateral cleft preschooler patients who have no orthodontic, otologic, and speech therapy. The group was 20 early operated patients with cleft and the control group consisted of age and sex matched children. For hearing evaluation of individuals: pure tone audiometry and tympanometry were used. For the vowels, first and second formant frequency steady states and the durations of steady states were measured. For the voiceless stop consonants, VOT and burst frequency were measured on wideband spectrographic. Two experienced speech pathologists evaluated the resonance and articulation. Six cases had normal hearing, seven had very slight, six had slight, and one had moderate hearing loss at least in one ear. The hearing of the seven cases was improved by medical treatment techniques, only two patients needed surgery. Speech assessment and the first formants of vowel /a/, /e/, and /o/ showed statistically significant difference whereas the second formant of vowel /i/ and /u/. The VOT values expect /p/ and the burst frequencies of consonants were statistically significant. Eight of these preschoolers patients with cleft palate demonstrated delays in speech sound development that requires speech therapy. Early surgery and the team care is very important to obtain normal speech, hearing, maxillofacial growth, and facial appearance. After the surgical therapy, otologic examination must be performed and speech analysis of these patients must be evaluated carefully to determine their need of speech therapy.