Language-Common and Language-Specific Speech Characteristics of Vietnamese Children With Repaired Cleft Palate: A Single-Site Observational Study

Abstract

Objectives

Speech characteristics of children with cleft palate (CP) have primarily been studied in Indo-European languages. Vietnamese has a unique phonological system that differs from English and other Indo-European languages. The speech characteristics of Vietnamese children with CP, however, have not been thoroughly explored. This study aimed to investigate the speech and resonance characteristics of Vietnamese children with repaired CP who attended a speech evaluation clinic in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Method

Seventy-two monolingual Vietnamese children with repaired CP, aged 3 to 12 years, participated in the study. Resonance, cleft-related errors, phonological errors, and speech production accuracy were examined. In particular, cleft-related errors and phonological errors were analyzed separately for word-initial and word-final positions. A database of 63 typically developing Vietnamese children was used to compare speech production accuracy.

Results

Both language-common and language-specific characteristics were identified. Most Vietnamese children with repaired CP in this study demonstrated persistent abnormal resonance and lower articulation skills than their typically developing peers. Nasal air emission and cleft-related speech errors primarily occurred in the word-initial position, whereas the most frequent type of errors in the word-final position were developmental errors. This language-specific characteristic was likely due to the Vietnamese phonotactic constraints.

Conclusions

Language-common and language-specific speech characteristics in Vietnamese children with CP may improve our understanding of CP speech. These error patterns are especially beneficial for Vietnamese speech therapists worldwide when assessing and treating children with CP who speak Vietnamese.