A New Protocol for Early Intervention in Infants with Cleft Palate: Language and Articulation

PurposeChildren with cleft conditions are at increased risk of language and speech disorders. Velopharyngeal dysfunction is a common sequela of palate repair, and children may develop cleft-type speech characteristics, with consequences in the academic, social, and ultimately employment, domains. Infants with certain speech behaviors are more likely to present with increased intelligibility at school age. These behaviors could be embedded into general language development strategies and taught to infants by their caregivers. This paper describes a study protocol investigating the effects of early language intervention strategies, as part of a caregiver-coached, group-based intervention in infants with cleft palate. The goal will be measured by changes in comprehension and expression, as well as the ratio of word to gesture use, attempts at oral plosive sounds, number of phonemes, and frequency and shape of babbling.MethodsWe will recruit up to 40 infants with cleft palate, plus their caregivers. Infants should be aged between 6 and 15 months. Families will attend a total of 12 sessions over 6 weeks and will complete demographic and communication-based questionnaires. Caregiver confidence will also be measured.ResultsWe hypothesize that, in addition to increasing the number of words or concepts that the infant can comprehend and express, there will be an increase in the specific speech behaviors that will be targeted in this intervention.ConclusionIf the study hypotheses are confirmed, these findings will provide support to better equip families with strategies to support speech and language development in the first 15 months of life.