Articulatory placement for /t/, /d/, /k/ and / / targets in school age children with speech disorders associated with cleft palate.
Citation
Gibbon, F., Ellis, L. & Crampin, L. (2004) Articulatory placement for /t/, /d/, /k/ and
/ / targets in school age children with
speech disorders associated with cleft palate., Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, vol. 18, pp. 391-404.
Abstract
This study used electropalatography (EPG) to identify place of articulation for
lingual plosive targets /t/, /d/, /k/ and / / in the speech of 15 school age children
with repaired cleft palate. Perceptual judgements indicated that all children had
correct velar placement for /k/, / / targets, but /t/, /d/ targets were produced as
errors involving palatalization or velar placement. An EPG classification scheme
identified alveolar, palatal and velar placement. Articulations involving contact
in alveolar and velar regions simultaneously were identified as alveolar velar
double articulations (AVDAs). The classification revealed that AVDAs were
relatively frequent, with 28% of alveolar and 12% of velar targets affected, and
ten out of the 15 children produced one or more of these abnormal articulations.
The majority of children had variable placements, with alveolar more variable
than velar targets. The positive finding from the EPG data revealed that most
children with perceptual errors for /t/, /d/ were able to make closure in the
alveolar region during at least some of their attempts to articulate these targets.
It is argued that appropriate analysis and interpretation of EPG data provide
clinically relevant information about tongue placement in cleft palate speech.