Early Intervention in Infants With Unrepaired Cleft Palate: Language, Palatal Function, and Articulation.
Old Dominion University
Summary
The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if teaching speech skills to infants with cleft palates, prior to palate repair, will help them to develop speech and language skills. It will also learn about whether the skills are linked to fewer speech sound difficulties when they start school. The main questions it aims to answer are: Do standard, early intervention techniques to promote language development, that are used in children who are late talkers, work in infants with cleft palates? Will infants with cleft palates increase the number of sounds they use after targeted intervention? Can infants attempt to make stop sounds, like b and p, after targeted intervention? Can infants with cleft palate learn new words more quickly when they are used with gestures? Participants will: Participate in a baseline evaluation of speech and language skills, either in person, or via Telehealth. Attend the clinic for twice-weekly visits, for six weeks, to learn techniques to help their infants develop their speech and language skills, in a group setting with other families of infants with cleft palate. Participate in a final evaluation of speech and language skills, either in person, or via Telehealth.
Description
Participants Participants will be caregiver-infant dyads, where the infant is aged between six and twelve months at the time of study enrolment. Infants should be under the current care of a craniofacial team, with no medical diagnosis that would preclude study participation (e.g., reliance on supplementary oxygen, nasopharyngeal airway in situ). Caregivers Caregivers should be over the age of 18 years at the time of study enrolment and be able to participate in the group intervention in the English language, although they may speak more than one language or dialect. Individuals who are not…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 0–1 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria: * Infants with unrepaired cleft palate (with or without cleft lip) * Aged between 6 and 10 months at the time of study commencement Exclusion Criteria: * Medically fragile status that would preclude participation in this community-based study. * Palatoplasty completed. * Aged over one year * Infants with cleft lip only
Interventions
- BehavioralEarly intervention for language, articulation and palatal function skills
This intervention will use the principles of focused stimulation, and enhanced milieu teaching, to coach families in the following speech and language development strategies: attempting oral plosives, increasing phonetic inventory, mapping words to gesture use, and promoting canonical babbling.
Location
- Old Dominion UniversityNorfolk, Virginia