Vocalisations before and after cleft palate surgery: A pilot study

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Abstract
This study investigated the effects of palatal surgery on the pre‐speech vocalisations of clef t palate children. The aims of the study were to determine if, and for how long, the operation influenced the child's vocalisations, to establish a data collection protocol and to evaluate the analytical framework devised to classify the vocalisations. Audio recordings were made prior to, and at regular intervals following, the operation to repair the palate. The vocalisations were transcribed phonetically and classified using an auditory phonetic framework. A computer progam was used to identify single units of vocalisation and to measure durational aspects of the children's vocalisations. The results indicate that the operation had an appreciable effect on the children's vocalisations for a limited time. The method of data collection proved to be practicable. It is also demonstrated that the analytical techniques employed provided appropriate quantitative and descriptive classification systems for pre‐speech vocalisations.

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