Background: This study investigated the associations between hypernasality and intelligibility, and language and reading skills in 10-year old children with a cleft palate ± lip.
Design: Cross-sectional data collected during routine assessments of speech and language in a centralized treatment setting.
Participants: Children aged 10, born with cleft palate ± lip from 4 birth cohorts (N = 123).
Outcome measures: Hypernasality and intelligibility: Swedish Articulation and Nasality Test-N; language: Language 6-16 (Sentence recall, Serial recall, Vocabulary); reading: word chain test and reading comprehension test.
Results: A total of 71.3% of the children had no occurrence of hypernasality and 82.8% had intelligibility scores within the normal range. For all children with hypernasality and intelligibility within the normal range, reading and language scores were also within normal ranges. Children with presence of hypernasality had significantly lower language skills, with mean scores within the lower normal range. Children with reduced intelligibility had lower scores on reading comprehension.
Conclusions: The findings highlight a possible association between hypernasality and language skills, and intelligibility and reading skills. Cleft teams should consider routine assessments of language and reading skills in children with speech impairment, in order to identify potential needs for intervention as early as possible.
Keywords: hypernasality; intelligibility; language; nonsyndromic; reading; speech impairment.