Attitudes and concerns of parents of cleft palate children about speech problems and therapy

Aim: The purpose of the study was to investigate: 1-The attitudes and concerns of patients with cleft palate (CP) and their parents toward speech problems and therapy 2-The impact of speech problems on the patient’s life. Subjects and Methods: This study was conducted in the cleft palate unit of Montréal Children’s Hospital, Canada. A questionnaire was used to collect the data on CP patients and their parents’ attitudes and concerns about speech problems and therapy. Results: Subjects of this study were divided into two groups; patients who have not had speech problem (group 1 = 26 subjects, 70%) and patients who have had speech problems (group 2 = 11 subjects, 30%). The majority (91%) of the parents in group 2 noticed the speech problem of their child when they were 3 years. In half of these patients, the speech therapy started when they were 3 years old. The majority of speech therapy was long-term and conducted by a speech-language pathologist with some parental involvement. More than half of group 2 thought that the school 2 teacher reacted in a positive way to their speech problem and most had not been teased due to their speech problem. About 63% thought their speech problem had a minor effect on their school results. The low teasing rate was reflected by the high confidence level of this group, 82% denied that they have less confidence level because of their speech problem. Conclusions: Our results suggested the parent's had positive perception about the role of day care and school in improving the speech. Unlike most of previous reports, patients with only CP showed low risk of developing problems with confidence level, teasing, and peer relationships. In addition they showed normal school achievement