The tongue dorsum activity in children with cleft palate and typically developing children

Abstract

Objective: Cleft palate speech is characterized by abnormal lingual articulation. To date, most articulatory information has been collected using electropalatography, which records the tongue-palate contact but not the tongue shape. The present study uses ultrasound tongue imaging for quantitative analysis of tongue function in speakers with cleft palate. Two measures aim to quantify overuse of tongue dorsum in cleft palate articulations were compared with typical speakers. The hypothesis is higher degrees of tongue dorsum activity in cleft palate speech. Measures: High-speed ultrasound tongue contour data synchronized with the acoustic signal were recorded. Data from three speakers of American English (11–13 years old) with speech disorders resulting from cleft palate and three typically developing speakers were analyzed. Annotation and tongue tracing from ultrasound images were carried out in Articulate Assistant Advanced software. One of the measures quantified the extent of tongue dorsum excursion (DEI), and the other measure represented the place of maximal excursion (TCPI). The stimuli included a range of consonants in consonant-vowel sequences, with the vowels /a/ and /i/. In total, 360 values were obtained for each index (six speakers × six consonants × two vowels × five repetitions). Further results will be discussed in the meeting.