Cleft Palate in the School-Age Population

Cleft lip and/or palate is the second most common birth anomaly, affecting 1 in 940 live births. However, SLPs who work in the public school setting often report limited training and comfort with this population. Children with cleft palate often require speech intervention and post-surgical repairs to normalize their phonological learning of the high intraoral pressure consonants. In many cases, SLPs may find it challenging to differentiate between speech characteristics that are a result of persisting velopharyngeal insufficiency and those that are learned, habituated speech behaviors. Children and their families may also require education abouthow speech and resonance will be impacted by the cleft palate. This course will address both structural and speech challenges that can co-exist in children with repaired cleftpalate so that SLPs in pediatric medical settings or public-school settings can help these children achieve theirbest outcomes for speech production.

Target Audience: Speech-Language Pathologists

Delivery Format: Asynchronous, recorded video to be watched online at your leisure

Highlights

• Anatomy and physiology of cleft palate and the expected effects on speech and resonance
• Differences between speech characteristics resulting from velopharyngeal insufficiency vs. habitual speech patterns