A plan has been developed to document speech outcomes in individuals with cleft palate, regardless of the spoken language, using a set of five universal reporting parameters and two global speech parameters.

Pooling data of speakers of different languages in the same trial and comparing speech outcome across trials seems possible if the assessment of speech concerns consonants and is confined to speech units that are phonetically similar across languages. Agreed conventions and rules are important. A composite variable for perceptual assessment of velopharyngeal function during speech seems usable; whereas, the method for hypernasality evaluation requires further testing.

ISRCTN29932826.

ISRCTN29932826.

No abstract