Basic Guideline for Rehabilitation of Patients with Cleft Palate.

Abstract

For the last quarter of a century, surgical techniques and speech therapy for the patient with cleft lip and palate have made remarkable progress, as other professional areas. However, recent survey of our patients and their family revealed that their needs and demands for medical and non-medical treatments had developed to a higher level and more comprehensive one. It goes without saying that the goal of rehabilitation for the patient with cleft lip and palate should not be limited to mere acquirement of a normal speech. With the recent advances in medical, surgical, orthodontic, and speech-therapeutic procedures, more attention is being directed to support of the patients and their family in the area of social functioning. Interdisciplinary cooperation is essential to an integrated cleft palate rehabilitation. This paper describes some of our recent steps toward that integrated approach. The subjects for discussion in this paper include 1. counselling techniques designed to promote healthy psychosocial development for parent and adult patients, 2. parent education according to rehabilitation program, 3. training camp, picnic and physical exercises for pre-school and early-school-age children, 4. velopharyngeal function test, i.e. nasoendoscopy, radiovideoscopy, and pneumotachography, and 5. training procedures used in our clinic to facilitate the correction of articulation errors, especially for adult patients.