Speech Disorders Related to Cleft Palate and Velopharyngeal Dysfunction

This chapter describes the impact on speech and language development of being born with a cleft-related condition when surgery to repair the cleft is performed in a timely manner. Intervention for children born with cleft palate may be needed to target a number of speech, language, and communication needs, often similar to children not born with clefts. There is increasing interest and global evidence on academic achievement in children with cleft lip and/or palate, which may relate to the issues with language development. Unlike developmental speech disorders, “cleft speech” is associated with changes in structure which can result in problems with resonance (hyper/hyponasality), nasal airflow, articulation errors known as cleft speech characteristics, and voice. Velopharyngeal insufficiency can also occur in the absence of a cleft, when it is referred to as non-cleft velopharyngeal dysfunction.