Articulation Errors Research Articles

Consonant articulation accuracy in paediatric cochlear implant recipients

ABSTRACT Hearing loss is a significant risk factor for delays in the spoken language development of children. The purpose of this study was to examine the distribution of articulation errors for English consonants among children with cochlear implants (CIs) who utilise auditory-oral communication. Speech samples from 45 prelingually deafened paediatric CI users were obtained using a single-word picture elicitation task. Samples were audio recorded and transcribed in PRAAT; overall percentage consonant correct (PCC) and individual phoneme error patterns were examined. Results showed an average PCC of 76.49% and participants exhibited lower accuracy in producing several consonants that are late acquired by typically hearing and developing children. In comparison to previous studies of children with severe-to-profound hearing loss who did not use CIs, participants in this study were more accurate in their production of most fricatives and affricates. Surprisingly, some phonemes that are acquired early in typically developing populations and that have high visual salience, specifically the nasal bilabial stop, /m/, were produced with relatively lower accuracy than would be expected based on published research. In comparison to voiced and voiceless oral bilabial stops, /b/ and /p/, /m/ was subject to substantially more place of articulation errors.

Speech Outcomes in Children with Robin Sequence Treated with a Pre-Epiglottic Baton Plate

Objective To analyze speech outcomes and cleft shape changes in children diagnosed with Robin sequence (RS) treated with a customized pre-epiglottic baton plate (PEBP). Design Single-surgeon retrospective analysis. Setting Tertiary care institution. Patients and Participants Twenty-five patients with RS who were treated with PEBP and primary cleft palate repair between 2010 and 2019. Interventions Postnatal use of a PEBP. Main Outcome Measures Speech assessment at the age of 3.5 to 4.5 years documenting hypernasality, nasal emission, nasal turbulence, voice quality, and consonant production, and analysis of digitally scanned cast models before and after the use of PEBP to quantify changes in cleft shape and width. Results The study cohort ( N = 25) consisted of 19 patients with hard and soft cleft palates and 6 patients with soft cleft palate only and postnatal use of PEBP. The mean reduction in cleft width following PEBP treatment prior to cleft palate repair in 19 infants with hard and soft cleft palates was 41.30% (standard deviation, 13.25). Speech assessments were conducted at a mean age of 48.5 months in all 25 children treated with PEBP. Most children presented with absent or mild hypernasality (96%), a rate of 8% of nasal emission and 4% of nasal turbulence was found. The most frequent findings were articulation errors in 14 children (56%), of whom 2 presented with cleft-type characteristics. Conclusions Children with RS and cleft palate treated with PEBP demonstrated a narrowing of the cleft palate prior to a timely surgical repair, and favorable speech outcomes already at a young age during childhood.

Speech Assessments in Hypoplastic Cleft Maxilla Treated by Anterior Segmental Distraction Osteogenesis

Introduction: Cleft lip and palate (CLP) affect the craniofacial region, with significant implications for speech, hearing, feeding, and facial aesthetics. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of anterior maxillary segmental distraction osteogenesis (AMSDO) using an internal distractor on speech outcomes in CLP patients, assessed using the Pittsburgh Weighted Speech Scale (PWSS).Methodology: A single-center prospective study was conducted between March 2022 and April 2024. Twelve CLP patients with maxillary hypoplasia, aged 17.8 to 32.6 years, were included. Purposive sampling was done to include patients with complete unilateral or bilateral CLP who exhibited Class III skeletal relationships with reverse overjet greater than 7 mm. Speech assessments were conducted preoperatively (1-3 months before surgery) and postoperatively (5-7 months after distraction). Speech samples were recorded and evaluated by a licensed speech-language pathologist using the PWSS. Statistical analysis was performed using paired t-tests and Chi-square tests.Results: Significant improvements were observed in the total PWSS score (p = 0.03), nasality (p < 0.001), phonation (p < 0.001), and articulation errors (p = 0.004) postoperatively. No significant changes were seen in nasal emission and facial grimace. No correlation was found between the amount of distraction and speech outcomes. Unilateral cleft patients showed better outcomes than bilateral cleft patients, though not statistically significant.Conclusion: AMSDO significantly improves speech outcomes in CLP patients with maxillary hypoplasia. The PWSS is a reliable tool for assessing these changes. Further research with larger samples and longer follow-ups is warranted to confirm these findings.

NCOG-42. SPEECH-SPECIFIC ERRORS IN LEXICAL RETRIEVAL PREDICT GLIOMA MOLECULAR FEATURES

Abstract Recent work confirms that low and high-grade gliomas, remodel neural circuits which influence speech production. The extent to which speech kinetics and category of speech error during lexical retrieval may predict glioma molecular features remains unknown. Here, we extracted audiovisual speech production from 550 patients totaling over 26,400 individual stimuli to identify correlations with glioma molecular features including IDH, TERT, 1p19q co-deletion, and CDK2AB. Nonparametric statistics were used for analysis. IDH wild-type tumors were more likely to be temporoparietal, while IDH mutant tumors were more likely to be insular (p=0.02). Patients with IDH wild-type glioblastoma exhibited more errors (8.23 vs 3.79, p=0.02), with a higher occurrence of anomia (p=0.004), circumlocution (p=0.034) and general delay (p=0.04) when compared with IDH mutant WHO grade 4 astrocytoma. Binomial logistic regression identified lexical retrieval anomia, circumlocution, and initiation delays as an independent predictor of having an IDH wild-type tumor. Within the IDH mutant group, anomia (p=0.03) and articulation (p=0.014) errors were associated with malignant molecular features (after controlling for prognostic variables such as tumor volume). Binomial logistic regression identified articulation or anomia for picture naming as an independent risk predictor for WHO grade 2 gliomas with greater risk molecular features (based on Ki67 and CDK2AB). Distinct patterns of language errors were observed in patients with IDH wild-type and IDH mutant tumors. Further work is required to elucidate the functional and biological correlates of these findings.

Speech sound errors in adolescents with congenital hearing loss

Children with hearing impairment (HI) often have vowel and consonant errors. Speech-language pathologists need this information to correct articulation errors. Despite the prevalence of research on speech sound error patterns in hearing aid users, there is a lack of literature in the adolescent group. The present study aimed to investigate the common speech sound errors in HI adolescents from the Malayalam-speaking community who have severe to profound hearing loss and are digital hearing aid users. A total of 15 monolingual Malayalam-speaking children between the ages of 9 and 16 years were recruited who had been diagnosed with speech sound disorders secondary to congenital hearing impairment. The minimum language age for inclusion in the study was over three years. Articulatory error analysis was performed for all consonants and vowels of the Malayalam language, and frequently produced vowel and consonant errors were included in the SODA and PMV analyses. The consonants frequently produced speech sound errors and no vowel errors were found. The most commonly produced consonant errors were fricatives, trills, laterals, velars, and alveolars. Substitution and omission errors were the most common type of error. Place and manner errors were more common than other types of errors. The results of this study may help parents and rehabilitation professionals to understand the common errors that persist even after intensive intervention. It may also be a useful guide for AAC therapists and speech-language pathologists in setting appropriate speech production goals for adolescents with HI.

Speech Outcomes After Primary Palatoplasty and Presurgical Cleft Characteristics: Is There a Predictive Association?

Speech disorders related to cleft lip and palate exhibit different degrees of involvement and can occur even after primary palate repair. Hypernasality can be present as a result of velopharyngeal insufficiency, as well as nasal emission, weak pressure, articulatory errors and facial grimace, affecting speech intelligibility. Palatoplasty outcomes can be variable, and among the influencing factors are the surgical technique, the surgeon's experience, the postoperative care, and the patient/cleft characteristics. The aim of this study was to correlate speech results after primary palate repair with surgical technique and cleft characteristics, using anthropometric measurements and speech assessment in patients diagnosed with cleft lip and palate. A longitudinal, retrospective study with patients who underwent primary palatoplasty between 2015 and 2019 and still attend Craniomaxillofacial Surgery Outpatient Clinic was conducted. Patients were operated on by a single surgeon using the intravelar technique veloplasty with maximal retropositioning of the soft palate elevator muscle. Patients who underwent primary palatoplasty after 2018 had the measurements before and immediately after palatoplasty recorded: length of palate, and the distances from cleft and uvula to posterior pharyngeal wall, and uvula to adenoid. Considering the total of 39 patients, 30 (76.9%) were male, with a mean age of 20.9 months (9-53mo). All patients had their speech recorded between ages of 60 and 120 months. Speech samples were assessed by 3 different speech pathologists experienced in cleft speech, with an intrarater and inter-rater reliability >80%. The most frequent cleft type was unilateral complete cleft lip and palate (59%). One patient had mild hyponasality, 1 isolated obligatory disorder (nasal turbulence), and 3 patients presented compensatory articulation (2 isolated and 1 also presented obligatory disorder). Only 1 patient had marginal velopharyngeal insufficiency. Postoperatively, there was a mean increase in palate length from 5.4 to 5.6cm, and a statistically significant decrease in the distance from the uvula to the pharynx wall, with a mean of 1.7 to 1.1cm (P<0.001). In general, patients analyzed did not have significant alterations in speech assessment, which did not allow further comparisons and correlation. Therefore, regardless of the anatomic characteristics of the palate, it is possible to achieve good results depending on the handling experience and the technique used.

Tongue Twisters in English: Examining the Dynamics of Language Production and Working Memory in Pakistani English Learners

Analyzing speech errors can deepen our understanding of speech production processes, as these errors exhibit non-random patterns. (Traxler, 2012). By analyzing errors in the recall of previously listed tongue twisters, the study interprets errors occurring at different levels, providing valuable insights into individuals' performance. Focusing on undergraduate students enrolled in a Functional English course at a Pakistani university, the research investigates the relationship between mental processes and the production of tongue twisters, both in formal and informal contexts. The findings suggest that a higher occurrence of phonological errors in the formal tongue twister articulation indicates the influence of language production awareness. This observation supports the idea that the acquisition of English as a second language may involve an unconscious process, emphasizing mimicry over comprehension.

Consonant Cluster Acquisition in Toddlers: An Explorative Study

The acquisition of consonant clusters is considered as one of the final stages of speech development in typically developing children. Nonetheless, the phonological development in children is now more advanced compared to the previously established norms. The current study aimed to determine how consonantal clusters, in particular non-geminate clusters, emerged throughout the early phases of phonological acquisition and to understand the positional variations in the cluster acquisition. The study involved 40 Malayalam speaking children aged between two to three years, divided into four groups with an age interval of 3 months. These children were administered 30 non-geminate consonant clusters from the Malayalam Articulation Test – Revised. Positional effect of the cluster acquisition was examined. In addition, the type of articulatory errors on consonant production were also determined. Findings from the present study revealed that children achieve the mastery of many consonant clusters by two to three years of age. Positional effect of cluster acquisition revealed medial clusters were acquired earlier than initial clusters. Cluster reduction was the dominant cluster error type, decreasing with age. Thus, compared with the previous established norms, the current findings demonstrate a much earlier acquisition of nongeminate clusters in Malayalam. The revised norms for cluster acquisition proposed from the findings of this study could benefit Speech-Language Pathologists to conduct age-appropriate assessment and treatment of speech sound disorders.

A Case Study of Suspected Childhood Apraxia of Sign.

We provide a case report of "Zoe," a 4-year-old deaf child from a deaf signing family, who presented with a possible case of Childhood Apraxia of Sign (CASign). The description is based on reports from the child's speech-language pathologist, her Individualized Education Program report, and a clinician-created sign imitation task. Zoe's sign articulation errors in American Sign Language differed from those reported for typically developing deaf children and were parallel to the types of errors observed for hearing children with childhood apraxia of speech. Specifically, Zoe produced inconsistent errors across signs, substituted more complex handshapes for simple handshapes, made errors on both unmarked (common) and marked (less common) forms, produced articulatory distortions (rather than substitutions), and exhibited "groping" behaviors (a sequence of attempts to move her hands into the correct position). In addition, Zoe sometimes self-corrected her errors by manipulating her own hands, for example, using her left hand to move the thumb of her right hand into the correct position. Zoe's pattern of sign errors is consistent with an underlying deficit in motor planning and/or programming and may constitute the first reported case of CASign.

Effects of suspension pharyngeal flap on speech in Filipino individuals with velopharyngeal insufficiency.

This study investigated the effects of suspension pharyngeal flap surgery for velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) due to cleft palate. Ten Filipino individuals (mean age = 20.63 years, range = 8.4 to 34.9 years) with a cleft palate who underwent suspension pharyngeal flap surgery for VPI were included in this study. Perceptual and instrumental speech assessments were conducted at two different time points: before surgery (data point 1) and after surgery (data point 2, range = 4 to 26 weeks post-operatively). Speech intelligibility in different contexts and satisfaction with speech were assessed by the participants themselves using a self-report questionnaire. Additionally, the risk for obstructive sleep apnea was assessed using the The Berlin Questionnaire. Velopharyngeal gap size significantly decreased after the surgery. Additionally, significant improvements in speech understandability and acceptability were observed following the suspension pharyngeal flap procedure. Besides, a significant reduction in hypernasality, nasal emission, and the occurrence of passive articulation errors was seen. No difference in the occurrence of active articulation errors was observed when comparing data pre- and post-surgery. The ten individuals reported to be significantly more intelligible in different contexts after surgery. Improved speech was observed in individuals who received the suspension pharyngeal flap procedure. This procedure also positively influences an individual's intelligibility in different contexts in daily life. In individuals with persisting active articulation errors, post-surgery speech therapy will still be necessary.

Phonological Memory in 5 to 6 Year-Old Korean Children

Objectives: Phonological memory plays a crucial role in speech and language development, especially in the stages when children learn new vocabulary. This study aims to investigate phonological memory using three different tasks believed to tap into phonological memory in 5 to 6 year-old Korean children, and examine the relationships among the three tasks and between phonological memory and vocabulary skills. Methods: Forty-two typically developing Korean children aged 5-6 years completed nonword repetition (NWR), sentence repetition (SRT), and picture pointing tasks, as well as the Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary Test (REVT). Children’s correct responses were analyzed from each memory task and compared to examine whether the two age groups show different performances. Children’s responses from SRT were examined by two scoring systems including or excluding articulation errors and their error responses in SRT were analyzed in detail. Results: Significantly higher correct response ratios were observed in 6-year-olds compared to 5-year-olds in the three phonological memory tasks, excluding correct item ratios of SRT. The results from error analysis of SRT showed that 5-year-olds had a significantly higher number of additions, particularly additions of grammatical morphemes. The three phonological memory tasks showed significant correlations with each other. Also, receptive and expressive vocabularies exhibited significant correlations with the three phonological memory tasks. Conclusion: The study indicated active development of phonological memory between ages 5 and 6. We addressed the components in the speech processing model that the three phonological memory tasks tapped into, and discussed their relationship with vocabulary.

Speech Outcomes after Delayed Hard Palate Closure and Synchronous Secondary Alveolar Bone Grafting in Patients with Cleft Lip, Alveolus and Palate.

Background The best timing of closure of the hard palate in individuals with cleft lip, alveolus, and palate (CLAP) to reach the optimal speech outcomes and maxillary growth is still a subject of debate. This study evaluates changes in compensatory articulatory patterns and resonance in patients with unilateral and bilateral CLAP who underwent simultaneous closure of the hard palate and secondary alveolar bone grafting (ABG). Methods A retrospective study of patients with nonsyndromic unilateral and bilateral CLAP who underwent delayed hard palate closure (DHPC) simultaneously with ABG at 9 to 12 years of age from 2013 to 2018. The articulatory patterns, nasality, degree of hypernasality, facial grimacing, and speech intelligibility were assessed pre- and postoperatively. Results Forty-eight patients were included. DHPC and ABG were performed at the mean age of 10.5 years. Postoperatively hypernasal speech was still present in 54% of patients; however, the degree of hypernasality decreased in 67% ( p < 0.001). Grimacing decreased in 27% ( p = 0.015). Articulation disorders remained present in 85% ( p = 0.375). Intelligible speech (grade 1 or 2) was observed in 71 compared with 35% of patients preoperatively ( p < 0.001). Conclusion This study showed an improved resonance and intelligibility following DHPC at the mean age of 10.5 years, however compensatory articulation errors persisted. Sequential treatments such as speech therapy play a key role in improvement of speech and may reduce remaining compensatory mechanisms following DHPC.

“The impact of orthognathic surgery on articulation proficiency and speech intelligibility in skeletal Class III malocclusion: 18 months follow up”

IntroductionOrthognathic surgery results in the positional change of the maxilla and mandible that may affect speech. The present study evaluated the effect of combined maxillary advancement and mandibular setback surgery on articulation proficiency and speech intelligibility in patients with non-syndromic skeletal Class III malocclusion. MethodsIn this prospective study, twenty-five patients with skeletal class III malocclusion and consecutively treated with Lefort-1 maxillary advancement and mandibular setback (BSSO) orthognathic surgery were included in this study. The speech sample was recorded with a digital audio tape recorder one day before surgery and at 3, 6, 9, 12 and 18 months after surgery. Three qualified and experienced speech and language pathologists evaluated articulation errors and intelligibility of speech samples. Repeated One-way analysis of variance was used to compare articulation proficiency and speech intelligibility at different time intervals. ResultsThe substitution, omission, distortion and addition errors showed no significant changes at 3 months and 6 months. The total articulation errors decreased to zero at 9 months and no significant increase was observed till 18 months (P < 0.05). Speech intelligibility showed statistically non-significant improvement at any time interval. Cephalometric skeletal parameters SNA and N ḻ A°. were significantly correlated with addition and total articulation errors at 18 months follow up. ConclusionsThe ortho-surgical treatment improves speech (decreases. articulation errors) in most of the patients usually 6–9 months post-surgery. Speech intelligibility is not affected by bimaxillary orthognathic surgery in skeletal class III patients. The articulation errors were correlated to changes in position of maxilla.

Beyond words: an investigation of fine motor skills and the verbal communication spectrum in autism.

This study investigated the associations between fine motorskills and expressive verbal abilities in a group of 97 autistic participants (age 8-17, mean=12.41) and 46 typically developing youth (age 8-17, mean=12.48). Participants completed assessments of motor and verbal communication skills, including finger tapping speed, grooved pegboard, grip strength, visual-motor integration tasks, and measures of speech and communication skills. ASD group performance on motor tests was compared to controls. Non-parametric tests were used to analyze group differences and correlations between motor and verbal communication skills. Based on prior research, we hypothesized that individuals on the autism spectrum would exhibit deficits in fine motor speed, dexterity, pencil motor control, but not manual motor strength. Additionally, we expected that impaired fine motor skills would be linked to poorer performance on standardized measures of verbal abilities. The results indicated that 80% of autistic participants demonstrated an impairment on at least one measure of motor skills, and as a group, they exhibited significantly poorer fine motor performance compared to the non-ASD group in dominant hand finger tapping speed, bilateral fine motor dexterity measured via the grooved pegboard task, and pencil motor coordination and visual-motor integration measured on the Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration-Sixth Edition. Moreover, impaired fine motor skills were associated with poorer performance on standardized clinical measures of verbal abilities, including articulation errors, receptive and expressive language and vocabulary, rapid naming, oromotor sequencing, and parent reported functional communication skills and social communication symptoms. Overall,our findings suggest there is a high prevalence of fine motor impairments in ASD, and these impairments were associated with a range of verbal abilities. Further research is warranted to better understand the underlying mechanisms of these associations and develop targeted interventions to address both fine motor and verbal impairments in ASD.

Usefulness of Automatic Speech Recognition Assessment of Children with Speech Sound Disorders: A Validation Study.

Speech sound disorders (SSDs) are common communication challenges in children, typically assessed by speech-language pathologists (SLPs) using standardized tools. However, traditional evaluation methods are time-intensive and prone to variability, raising concerns about reliability. This study aimed to compare the evaluation outcomes of SLPs and an automatic speech recognition (ASR) model using two standardized SSD assessments in Korea, evaluating the ASR model's performance. A fine-tuned wav2vec 2.0 XLS-R model, pretrained on 436,000 hours of adult voice data spanning 128 languages, was utilized. The model was further trained on 93.6 minutes of children's voices with articulation errors to improve error detection. Participants included children referred to the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at a general hospital in Incheon, South Korea, from August 19, 2022, to June 14, 2023. Two standardized assessments-the Assessment of Phonology and Articulation for Children (APAC) and the Urimal Test of Articulation and Phonology (U-TAP)-were employed, with ASR transcriptions compared to SLP transcriptions. This study included 30 children aged 3-7 years of age, who were suspected of having SSDs. The phoneme error rates (PER) for the APAC and U-TAP were 8.42% and 8.91%, respectively, indicating discrepancies between the ASR model and SLP transcriptions across all phonemes. Consonant error rates were 10.58% and 11.86% for the APAC and U-TAP, respectively. On average, there were 2.60 and 3.07 discrepancies per child for correctly produced phonemes, and 7.87 and 7.57 discrepancies per child for incorrectly produced phonemes, based on the APAC and U-TAP, respectively. The correlation between SLPs and the ASR model in terms of the percentage of consonants correct (PCC) was excellent, with an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.984 (95% CI: .953-.994) and 0.978 (95% CI: .941-.990) for the APAC and UTAP, respectively. Z-scores between SLPs and ASR showed more significant differences with the APAC than the U-TAP, with 8 individuals showing discrepancies in the APAC compared to 2 in the U-TAP. The results demonstrate the potential of the ASR model in assessing children with SSDs. However, its performance varied based on phoneme or word characteristics, highlighting areas for refinement. Future research should include more diverse speech samples, clinical settings, and speech data to strengthen the model's refinement and ensure broader clinical applicability.

Speech services by speech volunteers for children with cleft lip and palate in professional lacking area: Pilot study

Background: Cleft lip and cleft palate are the most common birth defects. Children with cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CP±L) face a vary of challenges, depending on the type and severity of the cleft including speech difficulty, dental problems, feeding difficulty, ear infections and hearing loss. Articulation error is the most common residual defect in children with cleft palate with or without cleft lip. Objective: To compare the numbers of pre- and post- articulation errors after using the Model of Speech Therapy by Volunteers (STV) for children with CP±L. Materials and methods: 9 children, aged range 6; 4-14; 2 years old, were included in this study and completely participated in the study. Pre- and post-articulation tests by Myanmar Articulation, Resonation, Nasal Emission and Nasal Turbulence Test were assessed at Mahamuni Monastery, and Thiriyadana Guha Pone Htoon Shan Monastery, Tachileik, Myanmar. STV is composed of a 3-day speech camp (1st month), 3 times 1-day site visits for complicated cases (2nd, 6th, and 10th months) and 3 times of 1-day follow-up speech camps (4th, 8th, and 12th months), Phonological approaches, traditional strategies, and specific techniques for speech correction in children with CP±L were taught to speech volunteers (SVs) and caregivers. Homework was assigned to SVs and caregivers. SVs provided a session of 45-minute speech correction every week. Caregivers practiced 5 sessions of 30 minutes in speech exercises /weeks at home. Results: STV revealed significant reductions in the numbers of articulation errors including articulation screening test [median difference: MD=6 (95% confident interval: CI=5.2-9.2)], and Myanmar articulation standard test at both word and sentence levels; [MD=8 (95% CI=6.5-10.8) and MD=5 (95% CI=4.2-8.3), respectively]. Conclusion: STV significantly decreased a number of articulation errors in children with CP±L of Myanmar, a professional lacking area, and could be applied in any area that has a similar situation. The result was a primary study, the further research should enroll more participants for generalization.

Speech Task Force and Quality of Life after Surgery in Children with Cleft Lip and Palate: Limitation of Professionals.

Background Shortage of speech and language therapists results in lack of speech services. The aims of this study were to find the effectiveness of a combination speech therapy model at Level IV: General speech and language pathologist (GSLP) and Level V: Specific speech and language pathologist (SSLP) in reduction of the number of articulation errors and promotion the quality of life (QoL) for children with cleft palate with or without cleft lip (CP ± L). Methods Fifteen children with CP ± L, aged 4 years 1 month to 10 years 9 months (median = 76 months; minimum:maximum = 49:129 months) were enrolled in this study. Pre- and post-assessment included oral peripheral examination; articulation tests via Articulation Screening Test, Thai Universal Parameters of Speech Outcomes for People with Cleft Palate, Hearing Evaluation, The World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief_Thai (WHOQOL-BRIEF-THAI) version questionnaire for QoL were performed. Speech therapy included a 3-day intensive speech camp by SSLP, five 30-minute speech therapy sessions by a GSLP, and five 1-day follow-up speech camps by SSLP that provided four 45-minute speech therapy sessions for each child. Results Post-articulation revealed statistically significant reduction of the numbers of articulation errors at word, sentence, and screening levels (median difference [MD] = 3, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2-5; MD = 6, 95% CI = 4.5-8; MD = 2.25, 95% CI = 1.5-3, respectively) and improvement of QoL. Conclusion A speech task force consisting of a combination of Level IV: GSLP and Level V: SSLP could significantly reduce the number of articulation errors and promote QoL.

The relationship of anterior malocclusion with phoneme articulation in children aged 6-12 years in Makassar, Indonesia

Objective: This study aims to establish the correlation between anterior malocclusion and phoneme articulation among children between 6 and 12 years old in Makassar, Indonesia. Material and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 157 elementary school students aged 6-12 in Makassar City, Indonesia. The sampling method used was purposive to identify students who met specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. Each student underwent an examination to determine the presence of anterior dental malocclusion and articulation check using a multi-word format consisting of phonemes. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 27. Result: The statistical tests conducted using the Chi-Square method shows a significant correlation between protrusion, diastema, deep bite, and crossbite with phoneme articulation errors, with a p-value of less than 0.05. Crowding is the most prevalent among all types of anterior malocclusion, while omissions are the most common type of phoneme articulation disorder. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that children between ages 6 and 12 in Makassar, presenting anterior malocclusion, could potentially demonstrate phoneme articulation irregularities. These may be associated with such conditions as protrusion, diastema, deep bite and crossbite.

Impact of Bilingualism on Speech Sound Disorder/ Articulatory and Phonological Disorders

Impact of Bilingualism on Speech Sound Disorder/ Articulatory and Phonological Disorders

Pyramidal sensory wavefront aberrometry as a method for visualizing intraocular refractive errors in articulation

Pyramidal sensory wavefront aberrometry as a method for visualizing intraocular refractive errors in articulation