Early intervention for speech impairment in children with cleft palate.
OBJECTIVE
This study explored the effectiveness of a parent-implemented, focused stimulation program on the speech characteristics of children younger than 3 years with cleft lip and palate. The research questions included the following: (1) Can parents be trained to deliver an early intervention (EI) program for children with cleft palate? (2) Does a parent-implemented EI program result in positive changes in speech characteristics?


METHODS
Ten mother-child pairs in which the child had cleft lip and palate (CLP) and 10 mother-child pairs in which the child did not have a cleft (NCLP). The children ranged in age from 14 to 36 months of age and were matched between the CLP and the NCLP groups for vocabulary size, age, and socioeconomic status.


METHODS
Group differences (CLP and the NCLP) for preintervention and postintervention language and speech measures were compared.


RESULTS
The results of this study showed that the mothers could be trained to deliver the intervention reliably. Furthermore, the results indicated that the intervention resulted in increased sound inventories, increased speech accuracy, and reduced use of glottal stops for the children with clefts.


CONCLUSIONS
While the intervention resulted in speech gains for the children with clefts, speech measures did not exceed those made by the children without clefts. The results of the study have implications for service delivery models where the services of speech-language pathologists are limited.
Scherer
Nancy J
NJ
Department of Communicative Disorders, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN 37614, USA. scherern@etsu.edu
D'Antonio
Linda L
LL
McGahey
Holly
H
D001184:Articulation Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002663:Child Language; D002668:Child Rearing; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery; D018479:Early Intervention, Educational / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005931:Glottis / Q000503:physiopathology; D006701:Home Nursing; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D016555:Matched-Pair Analysis; D009035:Mothers; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D012016:Reference Values; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000451:nursing / Q000628:therapy; D013070:Speech Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D013066:Speech-Language Pathology / Q000379:methods; D016896:Treatment Outcome