Masters Thesis

Cleft Palate Speech Therapy: Telesupport as a Home Program Supplement

International humanitarian efforts in cleft palate care often lack follow-up support for speech deficits. Ten Spanish speaking participants in Tijuana Mexico, age 3-12, with cleft palate were randomly assigned to a home speech program or a home speech program with additional weekly telesupport. Speech production was measured before an eight-week home treatment program and after treatment to determine the effectiveness of adding telesupport to a parent-implemented articulation approach. Age was significantly related to amount of time practiced, with older participants practicing more at home, with marginally increased practice for older students provided telesupport. There were no significant differences in speech production between the two treatment groups, yet the parent report was positive. Parents in the telesupport group were more comfortable with therapy implementation. Possible reasons for lack of phonemic outcomes are explored, as well as the potential that telesupport holds for treating cleft palate speech in children with limited access to resources, such as trained speech-language pathologists.

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