Objective: To investigate cry melody properties in infants with clefts using objective methods and to identify early differences in cry development in relation to infants without clefts that may indicate special developmental risks.
Design: Melody analysis was carried out on cries from the second month of life. The cry properties of infants with a cleft lip and palate (CLP) and infants with a cleft palate only (CP) were quantitatively compared. Both groups were compared to infants without clefts.
Participants: Twenty-one infants with nonsyndromic clefts, including 11 infants with CLP and 10 infants with CP, were compared to 50 healthy controls.
Main outcome measures: Frequency spectrograms and melody diagrams of about 7000 cries were analyzed. For each infant's crying, melodic and rhythmic properties were investigated and expressed by appropriate quantitative indices. Based on previous studies, the degree of melody complexity in an infants' crying was used as an indicator of their present prespeech developmental status.
Results: The cleft groups did not significantly differ from each other with respect to their cry melody development. However, both groups were significantly different from the control group, exhibiting a lower proportion of complex cry melodies and a deviation in rhythmicity. No significant correlation to hearing performances was found that could explain the differences.
Conclusions: Infants with clefts differ in their cry development from infants without clefts at 2 months of life. This early difference occurs before the infants undergo any surgical intervention or other treatment.