Cleft lip and palate
The word cleft means a gap or split between two things. A cleft lip is a split in the upper lip. This can happen on one or two sides of the lip, creating a wider opening into the nose. A cleft palate is a split in the roof of the mouth. This leaves a hole between the nose and the mouth. Sometimes a cleft lip and cleft palate occur together.
Cleft lip and cleft palate are birth defects. This means they happen while a baby is developing. Normally, the mouth and nose of a baby develop between the first 6 and 12 weeks of growth inside the mother. In some babies, parts of the lips and roof of the mouth do not grow together. The lips and the palate develop separately, therefore it is possible to have cleft lip alone, cleft palate alone or both together.
Cleft palate is sometimes part of a syndrome, which means there are other difficulties too.
Children born with a cleft lip and palate may have difficulties with feeding and/or with speech.
Some speech problems result directly from anatomical differences such as velopharyngeal inadequacy (the fact that the soft palate cannot lift enough to block off the nasal cavity). This is necessary for many speech sounds, such as /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/. This type of errors typically resolve after palate repair. Sometimes children with cleft palate have speech errors which develop as the result of an attempt to compensate for the inability to produce the target phoneme (speech sound). These are known as compensatory articulations. Compensatory articulations are usually sounds that are non-existent in the normal speech sounds of their language, often do not resolve automatically after palatal repair, and make a child’s speech difficult to understand.
There may also be speech and language difficulties which arise as a result of the syndrome which the cleft lip and palate are only part of.
Our paediatric speech and language therapists provided assessment and treatment from our private speech and language practice across Birmingham, Solihull and the West Midlands. Contact us today for an appointment with no waiting list.
The word cleft means a gap or split between two things. A cleft lip is a split in the upper lip. This can happen on one or two sides of the lip, creating a wider opening into the nose. A cleft palate is a split in the roof of the mouth. This leaves a hole between the nose and the mouth. Sometimes a cleft lip and cleft palate occur together.
Cleft lip and cleft palate are birth defects. This means they happen while a baby is developing. Normally, the mouth and nose of a baby develop between the first 6 and 12 weeks of growth inside the mother. In some babies, parts of the lips and roof of the mouth do not grow together. The lips and the palate develop separately, therefore it is possible to have cleft lip alone, cleft palate alone or both together.
Cleft palate is sometimes part of a syndrome, which means there are other difficulties too.
Children born with a cleft lip and palate may have difficulties with feeding and/or with speech.
Some speech problems result directly from anatomical differences such as velopharyngeal inadequacy (the fact that the soft palate cannot lift enough to block off the nasal cavity). This is necessary for many speech sounds, such as /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/. This type of errors typically resolve after palate repair. Sometimes children with cleft palate have speech errors which develop as the result of an attempt to compensate for the inability to produce the target phoneme (speech sound). These are known as compensatory articulations. Compensatory articulations are usually sounds that are non-existent in the normal speech sounds of their language, often do not resolve automatically after palatal repair, and make a child’s speech difficult to understand.
There may also be speech and language difficulties which arise as a result of the syndrome which the cleft lip and palate are only part of.
Our paediatric speech and language therapists provided assessment and treatment from our private speech and language practice across Birmingham, Solihull and the West Midlands. Contact us today for an appointment with no waiting list.