ABSTRACT
Objective:To study the correlation between early postsurgery phonetic acquisition of speech stop and speech outcomes of young children.Methods:28 children with cleft palate were included in the study.An one-stage palatal repair procedure was per-formed by one surgeon for the children before the age of 1 8 months.Naming tests were used in the speech therapy room when the chil-dren were aged 23 months and 30 months.Stop consonant inventory number,percent correct consonants(PCC),percent correct man-ners(PCM)and percent correct places(PCP)were analyzed.Results:Number of stop consonant was significantly correlated with PCC,PCM and PCP at 24 and 30 months of age in the children.Coefficient of determination between stop consonant number and PCC was 0.535.Conclusion:Speech stop may be used as the “sensitive sound”for the analysis of speech development of the chinese children aged 2-3 years after cleft palate repair and as the individuation guideline to determine the best assessment and therapy time.