Program no. 3644
PREVENTING SPEECH AND LANGUAGE PROBLEMS IN INFANTS WITH CLEFT LIP AND PALATE BY USING THE ‘PARENT FOCUSED APPROACH’
Mie Coquyt1 Sarah Sierens2 Nasser Nadjmi3, Maurice Mommaerts 4
1Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Campus Jette, Belgium, University College Ghent, Ghent, Belgium;
2University College Ghent, Ghent, Belgium;
3Craniofacial Association Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium, University Hospital Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium;
4University Hospital Brussels, Brussels, Belgrium, European Face Centre, University Hospital Brussels, Brussels, Belgium
About 1 in 700 children is born with cleft lip and/or palate (CLP). The malformation is often prenatal discovered. Parents need emotional support and correct information about the treatment, which preferably focuses on optimal growth of the mid-face and normal speech and language development. Cleft lip and palate forms an established risk for communication problems. Once a delay has emerged, all subsequent phases will be delayed. Therefore, a preventive approach in treatment is designated. The aim of our study is to prevent speech and language problems in this target group.
We developed a customized programme: the ‘Parent Focused Approach’ (PFA), for prevention and early detection of communication problems in children with cleft lip and palate. In this approach the parents learn to offer ‘reinforced stimulation’ in interactions during the daily activities with their child. The impact of the PFA was examined in a randomized control/intervention design in children between 6 to 30 months. To learn more about the long term outcome, we followed the children till all speech problems were solved.
None of the children showed severe compensatory articulation, and none of them needed a pharyngoplasty. The stimulation of intensive looking and listening behaviour appears to be critical.
The PFA is found to be a valuable intervention in order to prevent or limit the common speech problems in this target group.
