Abstract
As cleft palate children learn nomral articulation during period of echoic utterances which is seen in almost every child as a stage in linguistic development process, operation on cleft palate should be performed prior to the onset of echoic utterances from articulatory point of view. we investigated at which level of developmental stages children begin to use echoic utterances in order to determine the appropriate time for the operation.
1) Subjects: 51 cleft palate children, their ages ranging from one year 4 months to two years 8 months. Developmental quotient was 95.4 (S. D.13.56), and distribution was normal.
2) Method: Echoic utterances, language expression, operati onal skills and wit were studied. Chi-square test was administered while correlations between these factors and echoic utterances were examined taking developmental and chronological ages into consideration.
3) Results: Items which were in correlation with the onset of echoic utterances were as follows.
a) ability to use at least 8 meaningful words.
b) the beginning of ability to manipulate a doll meaningfully.
c) the beginning of ability to show wit in behavio r.
d) developmental age reaching one year 8 months.
Chi-square test revealed a significant difference at 1% level of confidence.
The results indicated that these indexes appear to be effective in deciding the appropriate time, which is considered to be before the onset of echoic utterances, for plastic surgery on cleft palate. However, no correlation between chronological age and the onset of echoic utterances was found and significance of difference was not seen.
