Prevalence and types of articulation errors in Saudi Arabic-speaking children with repaired cleft lip and palate.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to assess prevalence and types of consonant production errors and phonological processes in Saudi Arabic-speaking children with repaired cleft lip and palate, and to determine the relationship between frequency of errors on one hand and the type of the cleft. Possible relationship between age, gender and frequency of errors was also investigated. METHODS: Eighty Saudi children with repaired cleft lip and palate aged 6-15 years (mean 6.7 years), underwent speech, language, and hearing evaluation. The diagnosis of articulation deficits was based on the results of an Arabic articulation test. Phonological processes were reported based on the productivity scale of a minimum 20% of occurrence. Diagnosis of nasality was based on a 5-point scale that reflects severity from 0 through 4. All participants underwent intraoral examination, informal language assessment, and hearing evaluation to assess their speech and language abilities. The Chi-Square test for independence was used to analyze the results of consonant production as a function of type of CLP and age. RESULTS: Out of 80 participants with CLP, 21 participants had normal articulation and resonance, 59 of participants (74%) showed speech abnormalities. Twenty-one of these 59 participants showed only articulation errors; 17 showed only hypernasality; and 21 showed both articulation and resonance deficits. CAs were observed in 20 participant. The productive phonological processes were consonant backing, final consonant deletion, gliding, and stopping. At age 6 and older, 37% of participants had persisting hearing loss. CONCLUSIONS: Despite early age at time of surgery (mean 6.7 months) for the studied CLP participants in this study, a substantial number of them demonstrated articulation errors and hypernasality. The results showed desirable findings for diverse languages. It is especially interesting to consider the prevalence of glottal stops and pharyngeal fricatives in a population for whom these sound are phonemic.

Consonant profile of Arabic-speaking school-age children in Jordan.

The paper provides a detailed consonant profile of 100 Jordanian children at the onset of formal schooling. The data were elicited through a modified version of Amayreh's (1994) articulation test. The findings showed that all consonants of Jordanian Spoken Arabic were acquired. The six consonants that were not acquired in Standard Arabic have dialectal forms. The accuracy rates of these consonants were discussed in the light of frequency of occurrence of consonants and diglossia. The study recommended an earlier targeting of consonants that have dialectal variants. It also suggested that knowledge of the diglossic nature of Arabic is important for literacy development as well as for diagnosis and treatment of articulation problems.

Completion of the consonant inventory of Arabic.

This study is a follow-up of previous research on the acquisition of Arabic consonants in normally developing children between the ages of 2 and 6 years. The purpose of this study was to provide normative data on the acquisition of late consonants that had not been acquired by the age of 6;4 (years;months). Speech samples from 60 Arabic-speaking children between ages 6;6 and 8;4, in Amman, Jordan, were analyzed to determine the age at which 10 late consonants had been acquired and to determine the error patterns and sound changes used. Five of these consonants had still not been acquired in their standard form (Educated Spoken Arabic) by even the oldest children. However, 8 of the late consonants were produced in their acceptable colloquial forms by age 7;4 and all 10 by age 8;4. The late acquisition of these consonants was discussed from the point of view of functional load and markedness. Implications for diagnosis of articulation disorders and reading problems were considered.