Preference between compensatory articulation and nasal emission of air in cleft palate speech -with special reference to the reinforcement theory

Abstract

The reinforcement theory claims that certain speech deviations in children born with a cleft palate are due to reinforcement from the environment preferring these types of deviant speech. Also, it has been found that the mothers of cleft palate children tend to take on a teaching role in their interaction with their children. As the results of the present study show that female teachers tend to prefer compensatory speech to a much greater extent than others, it may be assumed that “teaching mothers” or very “teaching-like mothers”, are potential candidates for reinforcing speech with compensatory articulation.