The current investigation researched the effectiveness of the PROMPT method to address compensatory articulation errors in children with cleft palate. The investigation consisted of three participants (ages 4:4 to 12:8) born with bilateral complete cleft lip and palate. Participants underwent several reconstructive surgeries to repair their lips and palates. The PROMPT treatment was provided for 45 minutes three times a week for four weeks (three weeks for Participant 2) after stable data was obtained during three consecutive therapy sessions. Therapy sessions addressed anterior lingual speech motor phonemes across three tiers (syllable combination, initial and final position at words, and phrase levels). Direct visual observation of data obtained throughout this investigation indicate potential positive effects and significant correlation between improvements in sound production at different tiers and the implementation of the PROMPT technique. Speech intelligibility was judged by three blinded listeners who were unfamiliar with children with speech disorders and/or with cleft palate speech. All listeners identified and judged improvement in overall speech intelligibility over the course of this investigation. Listeners examined speech samples selected from sessions 3, 6, 9 and 12. The findings in this investigation provide a potential relationship on the effectiveness of the PROMPT method and attainment of accurate speech productions in children with cleft palate producing compensatory articulation errors, resulting in improvement in overall speech intelligibility.
