Speech accuracy and quality of life in children with Cleft Palate +/- Cleft Lip

Most speechinterventions focus on improving accuracy of consonants; however few studiesinvestigate whether this leads to improved intelligibility and quality of lifein children with Cleft Lip and Palate (CLP). Sixteen children with CLPcompleted a probe list to measure percentage consonants correct (PCC), theIntelligibility in Context Scale (ICS); and the CLEFT-Q Speech Distress andSpeech Functioning Scales before intervention, one week and one month afterintervention. Data was analysed across timepoints using linear mixed effectsregression models, accounting for multiple datapoints per participant. Resultssuggest that PCC predicted Speech Distress, but not Speech Intelligibility orSpeech Functioning. Improving percentage consonants correct is likely to impactpositively on children’s experiences of distress regarding their speech.