The Study on the Articulatory Movements of the Cleft Palate Patients by the Palatograms

This study observes the articulation of the cleft palate patients by palatograms and compares the articulation of the early operated group with one of the late operated group. I have attempted to classify and measure 1205 palatograms obtained from 17 early patients and 21 late patients who were operated on at the First Department of Oral Surgery in Kyushu Dental College and 10 normal children and 10 normal adults. The results of these observations were summarized : 1) In the vowels, the plosives, the fricatives, the affricates and the r-sounds, the early operated group resembles the normal group more than the late operated group. For this results, if patients are able to undergo the most ideal operation before 3 years old, they can have normal palatograms. 2) According to the results of the observations by palatograms, lingual movements in nasal consonants bear no relation to the time of the operation. 3) In the late operated group I found that in contacts of the tongue even labial sounds such as pa, ba, wa and ma have no relation to the lingual movement, or abnormal lingual movements seem to influence the abnormal articulation of this group. 4) In comparing voiceless sound patterns with voiced sound patterns, the latter resembles the normal group. For this reason, articulation of voiced sounds is more easy than voiceless sounds. 5) In the type of palatograms and palatogram index number, clefts of the soft palate and clefts of the soft and hard palate which make it difficult to produce anomalies of form of palate and anomalies of position of teeth, resemble the normal group as compared to clefts of the lip, alveolus and palate which make it easy to produce anomalies of form of palate and anomalies of position of teeth. But a normal degree does not always correspond with a grade of cleft. However compared with the time of the operation of clefts of the lip, alveolus and palate, the early operated group resembles the normal group more than the late operated group.