Exploring children’s cleft type and their speech and language
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring relationships and associations between children’s cleft type and early speech and language development
IRAS ID
251347
Contact name
Yvonne Wren
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
North Bristol NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
It is known that children with cleft palate are more likely than their non-cleft peers, to have persisting speech sound disorder. Children with cleft lip and palate have also been found to have poorer academic attainment; this may be because children who have speech difficulties are more likely to have poor phonological representation of sounds, which in turn may affect the development of their literacy and language. The relationship of speech development and language has not been well investigated to date. We also know little about how the different types of cleft (e.g. whether it is both cleft lip and palate, submucosal or unilateral/bilateral, and whether it was related to a genetic syndrome) relate to the prevalence of speech and language difficulties.
The proposed project will examine the relationship between the types of cleft and parent’s report of their children’s speech and language development. The objectives are to establish the proportion of children with cleft lip and/or palate who have speech or language difficulties at three, to examine the relationship between cleft type and SLT development at three, and finally to explore associations between children’s early speech and their language development.
This project will use existing questionnaire data from a large cohort study (Cleft Collective Birth Cohort). Specifically it will use “you and your child at 3 years” questionnaire data, from both the mother and father, where available.
The data sets that will be used will include demographic information about the child as well as their health, childcare, their intelligibility, hearing, as well as cleft phenotype and the presence of syndrome. The study will use descriptive and inferential statistics to analyse the data.REC name
London - Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/LO/1507
Date of REC Opinion
17 Aug 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion