How does cleft lip and palate affect speech?
Individuals with cleft lip and palate may also exhibit dysphonia. This is characterized by breathiness, hoarseness, and low intensity of voice during speech tasks. This is usually due to increased respiratory and muscular effort, and hyper-adduction of vocal folds while attempting to close the velopharyngeal valve.
What is the effect of cleft lip palate?
Children with a cleft lip with or without a cleft palate or a cleft palate alone often have problems with feeding and speaking clearly and can have ear infections. They also might have hearing problems and problems with their teeth.
How does soft palate affect speech?
During normal speech, the soft palate muscle in the mouth moves up and down and touches the back of the throat. To produce oral consonants (letters such as p, w, and x), the soft palate closes against the back of the throat. When the muscle closes tightly against the back of the throat, air cannot come out the nose.
Is cleft palate a speech or language disorder?
Articulation and Resonance Disorders An articulation disorder is when a child has trouble making specific sounds. “Cleft palate speech” refers to speech sound errors that are more common in kids with a cleft palate.
Does a cleft palate affect speech in adults?
Adults with a cleft may have speech issues even if they received Speech and Language Therapy as children. Problems with speech can be because of a learned problem where they have learned to make sounds in the wrong way growing up or a structural problem where there is something wrong with the mouth or palate.
How does cleft palate affect hearing?
Children born with a cleft palate commonly experience middle ear problems and associated hearing loss. This is a problem for children with a cleft palate because the muscles of the palate are important in allowing air into the middle ear, as well as allowing drainage of secretions from the middle ear.
How does cleft lip affect physical development?
Cleft lips affect the physical appearance of a child and when repaired, the child will still have a scar. This can affect confidence and self esteem in some children. Some children with cleft palate will have speech difficulties due to the structure and functioning of the palate.
Why is cleft lip more common in males?
Compared to females, clefts in males more commonly occur in both the early and late embryonic periods are therefore more often combined clefts of the primary and secondary palate, and are more frequently the result of differentiation defects and combined fusion and differentiation defects.
What is the role of the speech language pathologist on a cleft palate team?
A speech pathologist is a critical part of your child’s cleft palate team. Speech pathologists provide support from the early days by assisting with feeding and into childhood as your child masters speech with the continuous changes they will undergo the first few years of life.
Does cleft lip affect speech?
Is cleft lip related to other problems?
Cleft and other associated conditions (syndromes) Sometimes when a child is born with a cleft lip and/or palate there is a chance that they may have additional medical condition/s. These associated conditions include ‘Pierre Robin Sequence’ (PRS), Stickler Syndrome and 22q11 Deletion Syndrome.
How is cleft palate related to otitis media?
Otitis media with effusion is ubiquitous in children who have a cleft palate. The cause is simply the lack of proper insertion of the tensor veli palatini muscle in the soft palate. The muscle is, therefore, unable to open the eustachian tube on swallowing or wide mouth opening.