Compensatory articulatory behaviours in adolescents with cleft palate: comparing the perceptual and instrumental evidence.

A combination of perceptual and electropalatographic (EPG) analysis is used to investigate speech production in three adolescent speakers with a history of cleft palate. All the subjects still sound markedly atypical. Their speech output is analysed in three conditions: diadochokinetic tasks; single word production; connected speech. Comparison of the EPG and perceptual data reveals important lingual behaviours which were not identified by perceptual analysis alone. Lingualpalatal contact patterns previously noted in the speech of younger speakers with cleft palate are identified, as well as some lingual behaviours not previously reported in the literature. Similarities and differences between the individual speakers' profiles are discussed, as is the considerable inter- and intra-speaker variability identified in the data, and the speech output is discussed with reference to the notion of compensatory articulation.