Mary Ellen Tekieli

Developmental apraxia: Diagnostic considerations

This study compares the performance of developmentally apraxic children with that of children who have functional articulation disorders on a battery of diagnostic tests. Based on preliminary data, tests which assess auditory attention, auditory discrimination, auditory memory, oral-tactile feedback, and isolated and sequenced volitional oral movements appear to be useful in a differential diagnosis of articulatory defective children and, thus, warrant further study. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Functional regulator therapy for cleft palate patients

Nine cleft lip and palate children exhibiting collapse of maxillary segments and cross-bite were treated orthodontically with the functional regulator (FR) for periods ranging from 6 to 18 months. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate quantitatively treatment of cleft palate patients with the functional regulator and to evaluate the effect of the appliance on their speech. Cleft palate patients typically have speech, nose, and lip defects which make patient cooperation and appliance acceptance more difficult. However, patient cooperation was considered good with an average mean of 12.7 hours per day of appliance wear and a range of 5.6 to 18.2 hours. Change in interimplant dimension was measured on frontal radiographs, and dental changes were measured of serial dental casts. The resulting data indicated no significant change in maxillary width or cross-bite relationship. The functional regulator was not clinically useful in this sample when the treatment objective was primary expansion of collapsed maxillary segments in the cleft palate patient. Good speech-production skills prior to treatment will minimize the adverse effect that the FR has on speech intelligibility. A significant amount of accommodation to the appliance occurs within 1 week after insertion, but maximum improvement in speech intelligibility occurs with full-time wear of the appliance for as many hours per day as possible.

A comparative study of two procedures for assessment of oral tactile perception

The authors explore the effectiveness of several oral sensory receptiveness techniques as predictors of defective articulation.

Speech Changes Following Orthodontic Treatment With The Functional Regulator

Cleft palate children exhibiting maxillary segment collapse underwent orthodontic treatment with the Functional Regulator (FR). Audio and video recordings of speech were obtained periodically in conjunction with appliance management. Judges evaluated the recordings obtained with and without the FR in place by assessing speech intelligibility, resonance and nasal emission. Results indicated: a) changes in maxillary width and cross-bite relationships were not clinically significant; b) articulation, hypernasality and nasal emission were judged to be significantly more severe during appliance wear; c) video taped speech samples were judged to be significantly less intelligible than audio taped samples; d) a substantial amount of accommodation to the FR occurred at one-two weeks post insertion, but maximum improvement in speech intelligibility occurred over the period evaluated; and e) good speech production skills prior to orthodontic treatment minimised the adverse effect of the FR on speech intelligibility.

Perception of vowel features in temporally segmented bursts of stop‐consonant CV's

Segments of the burst portions of stop‐consonant CVs, increasing in duration in 10‐msec steps from the burst onset, were identified by 18 listeners. The responses were analyzed for the correct identification of vowel features. Coarticulatory effects of the vowel on the burst were found to (1) occur early in the burst, (2) vary with consonant and vowel, and (3) vary with vowel feature. In general, however, front versus back tongue placement for the vowel was perceived correctly most often, tongue height next most often, and the tense versus lax feature least often. For some CVs, sufficient cues for above chance level of identification of a feature were contained during the shortest segments of the burst. The results lend support to the point of view, in the case of unvoiced stops, that listeners can narrow the choice of the following vowel to a small number of alternatives prior to the beginning of the formant transitions or voicing.