The purpose of this study is to report an evaluation of speech therapy for patients with a brief discussion. The patients were seen in the 2nd Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Meikai University Hospital, between September 1, 2000 and August 31, 2005. During the period of this study, 107 (nonage) patients under 20 years of age were evaluated and/or managed with speech therapy. The results were as follows:
(1) Ninety-eight of the patients had some form of congenital disorder. Seventy-seven of them with cleft palate had severe articulation disorders, and needed more speech therapy than the other 21 of them without cleft palate.
(2) Only 9 of the patients had functional articulation disorders. Since their families expressed high motivation to get a good intelligibility, speech therapy for the patients was done more frequently than that for the others.
