Gaining clear speech is a functional goal of cleft palate treatment. The reality, however, is that there is still a percentage of post-operative cleft palate patients who present with ambiguous speech. Is it true that cleft palate patients are unable to obtain clear and intelligible speech? This may be a concern for many cleft palate patients and parents. Actually, this is not the case!
Today, as Sequential Therapy has become an internationally accepted procedure for cleft lip and palate treatment, speech therapists have joined the cleft lip and palate treatment team. The speech therapist’s assessment of the post-operative speech of the cleft palate patient and the function of the palatopharyngeal closure has become an integral part of the cleft palate treatment.
By working with the surgeon and speech therapist, a personalized combined surgical speech treatment plan is developed for the patient; by assessing the patient’s palatopharyngeal function, it is clear whether the patient needs to undergo further surgery; by assessing the patient’s speech, it is clear which problems can be improved surgically and which need to be addressed through speech therapy speech therapy for patients with good palate function but unclear speech, the acquisition of clear and intelligible speech is no longer a dream!