Residual hypernasality in repaired cleft palate.

This article reviews selected components of the speech process in children with a repaired cleft palate in order to provide the speech-language pathologist with a framework for decision-making in the selection of appropriate identification and management strategies. Discussion is offered which intends to clarify the phenomena of velopharyngeal valving, nasality, and hypernasality. With an understanding of these fundamental phenomena, suggestions are proposed for management approaches which may be applied to the more common bases of hypernasality in children with repaired clefts.

Speech screening of children in the dental office.

Screening for speech problems in the dental office involves less than five minutes. Procedures include the sampling of a child's pronunciations in counting activities, word responses to pictures or questions, and conversational speech situations. Use of a normative sound development chart will help judge each child's pronunciation skills. Oral diadochokinetic testing provides a means of evaluating the maturational level of the neuromotor components of the oral structures used in support of sound production. Finally, the child's ability to modify sound production after stimulation, that is, his "stimulability," adds important data for determining the child's potential for outgrowing his problem. The screening assessment of these several characteristics of speech performance, then, provides sufficient diagnostic criteria for the dentist to recommend those children for speech therapy whose error productions will not likely improve through maturation alone. In instances where examination indicates that maturation should cause spontaneous improvement of speech, the dentist would then be able to inform the parents.

Perseveration in brain-injured adults.

Despite the acceptance of perseveration as a characteristic sign of disturbed CNS functioning, objective data relative to its nature and occurrence are noticeably lacking. Data obtained in this study, not unexpectedly, indicate that perseverative responses occur more often in brain-injured than in normal subjects. The brain-injured subject most likely to evidence perseveration appeared to be one who (1) had suffered a CVA (2) less than 6 months ago that (3) resulted in aphasia. Two types of perseveration, repetitious and continuous, were noted in the responses of the brain-injured with higher incidences of the repetitious type occurring. It was felt that the behavioral definitions used to differentiate between repetitious and continuous perseveration allowed for reliable judgments between observers.

Spouses' understanding of the communication disabilities of aphasic patients.

The language skills of 11 aphasic patients were assessed through the use of the PICA. Spuses's understanding of the aphasic partner's language deficits was measured by rating the aphasic spouse on the Functional Communication Profile. Results indicate that spouses of aphasic patients view the patient's communication to be less impaired than it actually is. Implications for the counseling role of the speech pathologist in language therapy are discussed.

Effects of stimulus repetition on the naming behavior of an aphasic adult: a clinical report.

This report describes the content of a management program aimed at enhancing naming skills in an adult aphasic. A single therapeutic variable, stimulus repetition, was examined as to its effect upon the aims of the management program. The data indicate that large amounts of stimulus repetition did not enhance naming skills in this S more than did small amounts of stimulus repetition. More importantly, the data suggest that the application of a systematic management program did enhance the naming skills of this subject. The need to investigate the clinical effectiveness of routinely employed therapeutic variables is discussed.