Intelligibility in 3- and 5-year-olds born with cleft lip and/or palate: Reference data on Intelligibility in Context Scale scores

The following paper has just been published. It was commenced during my Benjamin Meaker Visiting Distinguished Professorship at the University of Bristol.

Davies, A., McLeod, S. & Wren, Y. (2026). Intelligibility in 3- and 5-year-olds born with cleft lip and/or palate: Reference data on Intelligibility in Context Scale scores. The Cleft Palate Craniofacial Journal. https://doi.org/10.1177/10556656261456526

Here is the abstract:

Objective
(a) Provide reference data for the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) for children born with cleft lip and/or palate and (b) compare ICS scores: between cleft types; with typically developing and normative samples; and across ages 3- and 5-year-old children.
Design
Longitudinal prospective cohort study.
Setting
Questionnaire data from the Cleft Collective.
Participants
Three-year-old (n = 928) and 5-year-old children (n = 795) born with cleft lip and/or palate.
Main Outcome Measure(s)
ICS – parent-reported measure using a 5-point Likert scale to indicate how intelligible their child is with seven different communication partners.
Results
Median scores for children born with cleft lip only were higher (4.14, 95% CI = 4.00–4.14 for 3-year-olds; 5.00, 95% CI = 4.29–5.00 for 5-year-olds) than those born with any form of cleft palate (3.71, 95% CI = 3.57–3.86 for 3-year-olds; 4.14, 95% CI = 4.14–4.29 for 5-year-olds). Scores for children born with cleft lip only aligned with studies comprising typically developing children and normative samples, whereas those born with any form of cleft palate did not. Children born with cleft palate and a diagnosed syndrome scored lower than those born with non-syndromic cleft palate. For children who had data at both ages, 75.4% showed improvement over time, 14.3% stayed the same and 10.3% scored lower at age 5.
Conclusion
Reference data are now available for children with the major cleft subtypes which can be used for comparison in clinical settings. These data show how children born with cleft compare with the non-cleft population and change over time.

Keynote address to the Craniofacial Society of Great Britain and Ireland Virtual Conference

The Craniofacial Society of Great Britain and Ireland Virtual Conference is being held on 9-10 September 2021 https://cfsgbi21.online/. It is a pleasure to be invited to present at the 2021 virtual conference whose theme is "Making a Difference". There were 163 people online during my keynote address.

Originally, I was invited to present the keynote address in Cardiff Wales in April 2020. However, the 2020 conference was postponed due to COVID restrictions.

My 2021 presentation is titled: "Making a difference to children's ability to communicate and participate" and profiles my work of Dr Anna Cronin, Dr Sarah Verdon and Dr Yvonne Wren and colleagues:

1. Cronin, A., Verdon, S., & McLeod, S. (2021). Persistence, strength, isolation and trauma: An ethnographic exploration of raising children with cleft palate. Journal of Communication Disorders, 106102. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomdis.2021.106102 
2. Cronin, A., Verdon, S., & McLeod, S. (2020). Working with toddlers with cleft palate: Learning from clients and families Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology, 22(2), 101–107. https://speechpathologyaustralia.cld.bz/JCPSLP-Vol-22-No-2-2020/30/ 
3. Cronin, A., McLeod, S., & Verdon, S. (2020). Holistic communication assessment for young children with cleft palate using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health:Children and Youth. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 51(4), 914–938. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_LSHSS-19-00122 
4. Cronin, A., McLeod, S., & Verdon, S. (2020). Applying the ICF-CY to specialist speech-language pathologists’ practice with toddlers with cleft palate speech. The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal, 57(9), 1105–1116. https://doi.org/10.1177/1055665620918799 
5. Seifert, M., Davies, A., Harding, S., McLeod, S., & Wren, Y. (2021). Intelligibility in 3-year-olds with cleft lip and/or palate using the Intelligibility in Context Scale: Findings from the Cleft Collective Cohort Study. The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal. https://doi.org/10.1177/1055665620985747

 

My presentation is available here: https://prod-stitched-screen-recordings.s3-ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/recordings/ebfddbf0-0420-11ec-b585-7f7404f40a84/c1929699-6b74-4af3-907f-636ab4c61c7e/ebfddbf0-0420-11ec-b585-7f7404f40a84_80aedccb.mp4

The rights of children with speech, language and communication needs in early childhood education and care

The following book chapter has been accepted for publication: Cronin, A., McLeod, S., & Wren, Y. (2020, in press). The rights of children with speech, language and communication needs in early childhood education and care. In F. Press & S. Cheeseman (Eds.). (Re)conceptualising children’s rights in infant-toddler early childhood care and education: Transnational conversations. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. 

Here is the abstract 

This chapter reviews international literature on communication rights and applies it to young children particularly in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings. Communication rights within the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child encompass: freedom of expression and opinion (Articles 12 and 13) and the language(s) in which children communicate (Articles 2, 29, 30 and 40). Accommodating and upholding communicative rights for children may require flexibility and creativity, depending on the modality of the children’s communication, and the language that they use. Thought and consideration to children’s right to communicate is imperative given communication is necessary for protection of many other rights. The second part of the chapter expands the discussion to specific considerations relating to communication rights for young children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), in particular, those with cleft lip and palate. A commentary is presented by Dr Yvonne Wren focusing on the rights of children with SLCN (including those with cleft lip and palate) in the United Kingdom (UK). Dr Wren draws on information from the Cleft Collective Cohort Studies, a large-scale national cohort study of over 2,000 children born with cleft lip and/or palate in the UK, with a particular focus on the early childhood experiences of education and care for children in the cohort.

The Informed SLP reviews our paper on assessments for toddlers with cleft lip and palate

The Informed SLP has just published a review that includes our LSHSS paper on assessments for toddlers with cleft lip and palate. Their review is titled Under pressure: Looking beyond oral pressure consonants in children with cleft palate https://www.theinformedslpmembers.com/peds-under-review/under-pressure-looking-beyond-oral-pressure-consonants-in-children-with-cleft-palate

Our paper that they reviewed is here:

Cronin, A., Mcleod, S., & Verdon, S. (2020). Holistic Communication Assessment for Young Children With Cleft Palate Using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health:Children and Youth. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_lshss-19-00122