PECULIARITIES OF SPEECH THERAPY DIAGNOSTICS IN PATIENTS WITH CONGENITAL CLEFTS ON THE PALATE

Patients with clefts have damaged speech organs, which rarely approaches the anatomical and physiological norm. The pronunciation, tempo and fluency of speech are directly dependent on the type and size of the deformation.
Aim We present 30 patients aged 6.7 to 18.5 years. All patients underwent soft palate surgery.
Methods
Clinical observation: lower jaw - size and mobility, upper jaw - development, shape and size, the position of the teeth, occlusion, hard and soft palate - shape, size, scars, symmetry, color, mobility, tonsils – hypertrophy, nasal cavity - deformation of the nose and nasal septum. Hearing test by audiometric examination. Clinical test of the breathing, volitional control of breathing during speech. Check of the swallowing, verification of velopharyngeal function - static and dynamic. Speech check - initial general conversation with the child to determine the general features of speech and checking the pronunciation.
Results
Patients with clefs have delayed sound development compared to the norm. Speech is hypernasal to varying degrees, change in the tempo and fluency of speech – shortening syllables, omitting sounds and syllables in words without the child pausing in their place. Children have difficulties with grammatical word formation, their lexical use in sentences and syntactic rules of the language.
Conclusions
The great variability of speech and language disorders requires the development of
an individual therapeutic program for each child depending on its characteristics.

Keywords: clefts, speech

Palmira Alagyozova

DDS, MSD, PhD, Assistant professor, Orthodontics Department, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Medical University – Sofia, Bulgaria