ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the application and effectiveness of the combination of bilabial /Φ/and inter-dental /θ/to the training of pronouncing fricatives after cleft palate operations .Methods Seventy children aged four to eight years with abnormal fricatives after cleft palate operations over one month were enrolled in the study . They were randomly allocated into the experimental group (35 cases) and the control group (35 cases) .The chil-dren in the experimental group received the combined training of bilabial /Φ/and inter-dental /θ/while those in the control group received routine rehabilitation training .Results After 6 to 10 times of speech training ,the number of erroneous words of the experimental group decreased to 1 .20 ± 0 .35 from 70 .80 ± 0 .52 before the training .The difference was statistically significant (Z= -5 .215 , P= 0 .001) .The number of incorrect words of the control group decreased to 7 .17 ± 0 .45 from 70 .86 ± 0 .50 of the baseline .The difference was statistically significant (Z=-5 .237 ,P=0 .001) .The number of erroneous words of the two groups had no statistical differences before train-ing (t= -0 .079 ,P=0 .937) .The number of wrong words of the experimental group was significantly lower than the control group after training (Z= -7 .023 ,P=0 .001) .Conclusion The application of the combination of bilabi-al /Φ/and inter-dental /θ/to the training of pronouncing fricatives after cleft palate operations can decrease dis-tinctly the number of erroneous words .