Speech Production and Oral Motor Skill in an Adult with an Unrepaired Palatal Cleft

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify maneuvers and strategies that enabled an adult speaker to produce "pressure" consonants intelligibly despite an open cleft of the palate. Dynamic palatometry indicated that this was achieved in part by increasing linguapalatal contact in stop sound production and narrowing the linguapalatal groove in sibilant sound production. These adaptations apparently enabled the talker to compensate for reduced air supply in a manner similar to that identified previously in responses of subjects with esophageal speech. Oral motor skill was examined in a nonspeech task that involved tongue tip placement at six points along the palate with and without visual feedback. This revealed precise control of the tongue even in the region of the cleft. Less accurate tongue placement skills were found in the central palatal region despite intactness of the palate. This supports the hypothesis that phonetic inventories of human languages are shaped by oral motor capabilities.