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Expert Q&A
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| By Mindy Hudon Speech and Language Pathologist | ||
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My child has a cleft lip and palate. He has had an evaluation done, and he seems to be doing well for the situation but I worry quite a bit about his speech. He scored average for speech and we were told he would not need speech therapy as of yet. Should we be concerned? If not how can we keep his speech on the right track?
If you have had your child evaluated by a team of professionals who specialize in children with cleft lip and palate you should be confident about their recommendations. If your son's speech is average at this point, that is a good sign. As a parent, I sympathize with your concern and worry.
Continue to have him reassessed by the speech-language pathologist and ask him/her to give you suggestions on how best to work on his speech at home. I am sure if you contacted the speech-language pathologist who evaluated your son they would be more than happy to give you some suggestions on how best to stimulate his speech.
For now, you could work with your child in front of a mirror and play with speech sounds alone or in words. Try to have him model them to you while watching your mouth. Have fun and be silly to help him feel comfortable about his speech.
Learn more about cleft palates here.
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