Speech Therapy
The Role of Speech and language Pathologist In cleft lip and palate patients is dynamic, It includes assessment, referral and therapeutic protocols
Speech evaluation covers following aspects:
- Personal History
- Case history
- Developmental problems
- Oral motor examination
- General behavior observation
- Hearing problems
- Language
- Receptive and expressive language
- Speech sampling by video recordings before and after surgery
- Voice
- Resonance
- Articulation and phonology
- Nasoendoscopy
- Feeding and swallowing disorders
During assessment nasal air emission,nasality level, phonation and articulation are closely observedand scored . Good Articulation depends on the intactness of oral cavity. Articulation is a joint ventureof the articulators (Tongue, Lips, Teeth, Hard & Soft palate). Articulation is manner of placement, voicing and correct production of consonants
We doobjective assessment by nasometer II which gives us complete picture of:
| Hyper nasality in percentage | Hypo nasality | V P I |
| Maximumnasalance | Minimumnasalance | Mean level of naslance |
Management and Intervention
Guidelines for patients and family members include:
- Counseling
- Training speech sessions
- Sharing Tangible Goals
- Use of technology nasometerII
- Monitoring the Improvement
