- Cleft Palate and Speech Development Resources

[Guest guest]

forgot to include in my previous message- Cleft Palate

and Speech Development resources. I recently posted this

info to the group list. Perhaps there are contacts at these

sites that can help with questions on Cleft Palate and

Speech and Speech Therapist for Florida.

Best wishes on your search.

Mustafa

Cleft Palate and Speech Development

http://www.cleftline.org/publications/speech.htm

What speech problems might children with clefts have?

" Before the palate is repaired, there is no separationbetween

the nasal cavity and the mouth. This means that a)the child

cannot build up air pressure in the mouth becauseair escapes

out of the nose, and there is less tissue onthe roof of the

mouth for the tongue to touch. Both ofthese problems can

make it difficult for the child to learnhow to make some

sounds.It is not unusual for a child who is born with a

cleftpalate to show a delay in both the onset of speech and

thedevelopment of speech sounds during the first 9-24

monthsof age. Therefore, it is important to talk to your

childand to encourage your child to talk to you. Once the

palatehas been repaired, your child may be able to learn

moreconsonant sounds and say more words, but speech may

stillbe delayed during the early years. Articulation

problems(difficulties in making certain sounds) may persist

in somechildren throughout early childhood for a variety

ofreasons. If your child's teeth do not " line up "

correctly,speech may be understandable, but some sounds

(like " s " or " sh " ) may sound distorted or " mushy. " It is

also importantto remember that some children, with or

without a cleftpalate, may simply develop speech more

slowly than others. When speech is produced correctly, the

soft palate lifts and moves toward the back of the throat,

separating thenasal cavity from the mouth so that air and

sound can bedirected out of the mouth. The inability to

close off thenasal cavity from the mouth is called

velopharyngealinadequacy. Children who have velopharyngeal

inadequacy maysound like they are " talking through their

noses. " Thisproblem occurs because when the soft palate

cannot closeoff the nose from the mouth, air and sound can

escapethrough the nose during speech, possibly resulting

inhypernasality and nasal emission of air. (It is normal

forair and sound to come out of the nose when saying the

" m, " " n, " or " ing " sounds.) Approximately 25% of children

withrepaired cleft palates still show signs of

velopharyngealinadequacy.You may notice that your child

produces " grunt " or " growl " sounds. These sounds represent a

behavior that somechildren learn in an attempt to

compensate forvelopharyngeal inadequacy. This behavior

usually beginsbefore the palate is repaired, but it may

continue evenafter the palate is closed. Although it can be

corrected byspeech therapy, you should not encourage your

child to makethese types of sounds, because it can be

difficult for himor her to " unlearn " this habit.Children

with velopharyngeal inadequacy may also have avoice

disorder. In this case, your child's voice may soundhoarse

or " breathy " and may fatigue easily. This problem isusually

caused by the strain that he or she puts on thevocal cords

while trying to build the pressure necessaryfor normal

speech. "

" Complete the article

here:http://www.cleftline.org/publications/speech.htmCleft

Advocate'sFamily-To-Family

Connection!http://www.cleftadvocate.org/ftfc.htmlLearn

More- Information provided by medical

professionalshttp://www.cleftadvocate.org/LearnMore.htmlSpeechville-

Cleft Lip & Palate

http://speechville.com/associated-disabilities/cleft-palate.htmlWidesmiles.org-

Speech Resources

http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/cgi-bin/extlink.pl?l=http://www.widesmiles.org/St\

imulating

Early Speech Development - 12 months to 3

yearshttp://www.keepkidshealthy.com/cgi-bin/extlink.pl?l=http://www.widesmiles.o\

rg/Questions

About Early Speech

Therapyhttp://www.keepkidshealthy.com/cgi-bin/extlink.pl?l=http://www.widesmiles\

..org/Early

Speech Treatment in Infants

http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/cgi-bin/extlink.pl?l=http://www.widesmiles.org/Co\

ry's

Story on Speech Therapy/Palate

Repairhttp://www.keepkidshealthy.com/cgi-bin/extlink.pl?l=http://www.widesmiles.\

org/Cleft-Talk

- Email discussion/support

grouphttp://www.keepkidshealthy.com/cgi-bin/extlink.pl?l=http://www.widesmiles.o\

rg/

SPEECH AND LANGUAGE READING AND RESOURCE LIST FOR PARENTS

OF CLEFT-AFFECTED CHILDREN

Toddlers Learn by Doing Rita

Schran k Humanics Limited PO Box 7447Atlanta GA 30309

(1990)The Infant & Toddler Handbook Castle,

EdDHumanics LimitedPO Box 7447Atlanta GA 30309

(1983)Helping Baby GrowPatty Deery & HamTS Denison &

Company IncMinneapolis MN 55431 (1989)

Oral clefts and speech development

The nature of speech difficulties

http://www.cleft.ie/speech/

Cleft palate speech dissected

(article summary)

http://www.cleft.ie/speech/speech2.htm

" It appears possible to predict some of the more severe

speech problems during the pre-speech stage of development.

In normal development, children usually produce voiced

plosives 'b d g' before their voiceless counterparts 'p t

k', whereas this development is reversed with cleft palate

children.

Early identification of cleft-type patterns and

preventative therapeutic intervention prior to speech

development may facilitate normal speech acquisition with

little or no need for later therapy.

Caution is recommended with regard to the assessment of

early speech patterns since early speech can be quite easy

to understand with apparently normal consonants in children

about two and a half years old but, with increasing

complexity of language and attempts to

produce a wider range of consonants, speech can become

increasingly unintelligible.

Not all speech disorders present in cleft palate children

are directly related to the cleft; they may be associated

with hearing impairment or developmental factors.

" Unintelligible speech "

requires detailed assessment to establish whether errors

are predominantly cleft or non-cleft related or, as often

occurs, a combination of both. "