What a Cleft Palate Team Wants You to Know
June 29, 2009
Recently, I had the opportunity to interview members of a CLP team and they shared with me what would make it easier .
What would you consider to be the most important thing that a service provider should know when they are working with a child with a cleft lip and palate?
Kids with clefts can’t generate pressure to make sounds. Normally they just say “muh.” We need to brush up on our A&P so that we can provide good therapy.
What should ECI professionals educate parents on?
The second surgery normally occurs around 12 months so kids with clefts won’t develop speech sounds on time. Let the parents know that they should be looking for and practicing low pressure sounds to get the ball rolling.
Is there anything that the parents could know from the ECI agencies to make the team and surgery visits easier?
Keep the child’s hearing status up to date. Hearing issues like infections can delay speech even further and cause schedules to be pushed back or visits to be cancelled.
Is there anything problematic/difficult with family interactions that could be addressed by services outside of the team visits?
You need to do a full assessment to determine whether there are cognitive delays or other delays. Parents fear that their children are delayed in every way imaginable because of the cleft. Normally communication is the only main issue.
Red Flags for Language Impairment in Bilingual Learners
June 22, 2009
Yes, determining whether or not a bilingual student should have a full evaluation can be a difficult process. However, aren’t there some red flags that can help us determine that an evaluation is necessary? Here are some definite red flags:
• Difficulty learning both languages, even with adult assistance
• Family history of language/learning disabilities
• Slower development than siblings
• Difficulty interacting with peers from similar backgrounds
• Inappropriate pragmatic/social language skills (i.e., turn-taking, topic maintenance, considering listener needs, non-verbal communication)
• Difficulty with both languages
• Difficulty with language in many routines
• Idiosyncratic error patterns
What is the role of an interpreter during an assessment, particularly during the language sample?
June 15, 2009
What is the role of an interpreter during an assessment, particularly during the language sample?
Henriette W. Langdon defines interpreters and translators as following:
An interpreter is someone who translates spoken language from one language to another.
A translator translates written documents from one language to another.
Can the interpreter interact directly with the client and elicit a language sample themselves? Or is this outside of his/her scope of practice since to produce independent communication would not be “interpreting”? If a student is bilingual, for example in ASL and English, it would be advantageous to take a look at each language individually. Therefore one would want a language sample with the client responding solely to ASL, without information given in English. If you have an English speaking SLP, can he/she just sit and observe while the ASL interpreter elicits a language sample in ASL?
Apraxia Resource
June 8, 2009
Information on Apraxia is hard to come by so I wanted to share this resource.
Anne
A great website for information on Apraxia and working with children with Apraxia is http://www.apraxia-kids.org/. It has information for both families and professionals.
Speech Goals for Spanish and English-Speaking Children with Cleft Palate
June 1, 2009
Hi everyone,
Here are some goals for increasing the consonant inventories for young children with cleft palate.
Prior to closing the palate, a child needs to focus on low pressure sounds. These are sounds that are made with the throat (h) or with the nose (m,n) and don’t depend on the child being able to build up pressure and create other sounds.
Prior to their palate repair, you want to also practice high pressure sounds by asking them to repeat you and when they begin, plug their nose. Next slide You wouldn’t expect them to have much success but you are laying the groundwork for therapy after the surgery takes place.
BEFORE palate Repair LOW pressure words to target
Spanish English
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• Mamá • No • Mío • Niña • Niño • Ojos • En • Mano • Wawa – agua
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• Hi • Hello • Hey • Mommy • More • Me • No • Whoa • Wow • Honey
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AFTER palate Repair HIGH pressure words to target
Spanish English
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• Papá • Bebé • Boca • Gato • Todo • Tú • Tío • Qué • Ten
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• Baby • Boy • Pop • Pooh • Pie • Toy • Doll • Daddy • Cookie • Go
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