Background & Objectives: Accounting for the index of communication effectiveness as well as the percentage of correct consonants (PCC) in clinical decision-making is important when treating patients with articulation-phonological disorders. The purpose of the current study was to examine how the PCC derived from single words in children with cleft palate (CP) effects speech intelligibility and speech acceptability. The present study compared the PCC, the speech intelligibility, and the speech acceptability of CP children with those of children with functional articulation disorder and normally developing children. Methods: The present study consisted of three age-matched groups of children: nine with CP, nine with functional articulation disorder, and nine normal developing children. All subjects were asked to repeat seven 15 one-syllable words. Each word was judged in regard to correct articulation of the initial target sounds, and a PCC score was calculated for each word. After listening to each word, 40 naive listeners were asked to write down the word on a phoneme to phoneme basis and to rate the speech acceptability of each word on a 10-cm Visual Analog Scale. Results: The PCC of the words in children with CP was significantly lower than those of the children with functional articulation disorders and the typically developing children. However, the speech intelligibility of the words in children with CP was lower only in comparison to the typically developing children. Additionally, there was no significant difference among the three groups with regard to speech acceptability. Comparing the differences among the three groups of variables according to the classification of the target consonant, different tendencies were observed. Discussion & Conclusion: Even though speech intelligibility and speech acceptability are influenced by the PCC, they are not the same measures and represent different variables. Some possible variables which underlie the relationships among PCC, speech intelligibility, and speech acceptability are further discussed.
