Compensatory Speech Behaviors in Individuals with Cleft Palate: A Regulation/Control Phenomenon?

Abstract

The articulation errors associated with velopharyngeal incompetence are of particular interest to clinicians and researchers because the problems they pose usually remain after surgical repair and the reasons they appear may have important implications for speech-motor control. The intriguing question of why individuals develop and maintain such detrimental behaviors has been the focus of our laboratory's attention over the past 25 years. The purpose of this paper is to present a hypothesis dealing with compensatory speech behaviors in cleft palate, provide some data in support of this hypothesis, and project future directions for research. The hypothesis, that speech aerodynamics conform to patterns characteristic of a regulating system, proposes that compensatory behaviors in cleft palate are manifestations of regulation and control strategies. Cleft palate speech is usually characterized by two major distortions, one of resonance and the other of articulation (McWilliams, 1954; Spriestersbach, 1955; Spriestersbach et a1, 1961; VanDemark, 1979; Riski, 1979). Both relate to an inability to attain adequate velopharyngeal closure (Shelton et a1, 1973; Pitzner and Morris 1966; Brooks et al, 1965; Shelton et a1 1964). The articulation errors associated with velopharyngeal incompetence are of particular interest to clinicians and researchers because the problems they pose usually remain after surgi— cal repair and the reasons they appear may have important implications for speech—motor control. It is paradoxical that although velopharyngeal incompetence stimulates compensatory speech behaviors, such responses tend to further under— mine rather than enhance speech performance. Dr. The intriguing question of why individuals develop and maintain such detrimental behaviors has been the focus of our laboratory's attention over the past 25 years. The purpose of this paper is to present a hypothesis dealing with compensatory speech behaviors in cleft palate, provide some data in support of this hypothesis, project future directions of our research, and possibly stimulate others to pursue similar lines of inquiry. BACKGROUND