The effects of palatal appliances on the speech of five-year-old children

Forty five-year-old children were divided into two groups based upon their scores on an articulation test. Following the articulation test, children in both groups named pictures while wearing no appliance and while wearing a 1-mm-thick palatal appliance. They performed the tasks in quiet and while hearing a 90-dB-SPL speech noise. Tape recordings of the subjects were analyzed perceptually for articulation errors. Errors increased when the appliance was placed and when the noise was introduced. There was no interaction between the effects of the appliance and the noise on speech. The effects of appliances and noise on speech were similar for the two groups of subjects. The data from the present study parallel those from a previous study with adult subjects [S. R. Gather, T. M. Speidel, and L. Glass, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 61, S7(A)( 1977)]. [Work supported by an NIDR postdoctoral fellowship awarded to S. R. Garber.]