Attitudes and Concerns of Parents of Cleft Palate Children about Speech Problems and Therapy in Their Children

The purpose of the study was to investigate: 1 The attitudes and concerns of cleft palate (CP) patients and their parents toward speech problems and therapy, and 2 The impact of speech problems on the CP patients’ life. The study was conducted in the cleft palate unit of Montréal Children’s Hospital, Canada. A questionnaire was used to collect the required data. The CP patients were divided into two groups; those without speech problem [group 1 = 26 (70%) patients] and others who had speech problems [group 2 = 11 (30%) patients]. The majority (91%) of parents of group 2 CP patients noticed the speech problem in their children when they were <3 years old. In more than half of these patients, the speech therapy started when they were 3 years old. The speech therapy was mostly long-term and conducted by a speech-language pathologist with some parental involvement. More than half of group 2 parents thought that the school teachers reacted in a positive way to their child’s speech problem, and most had not been teased due to their speech problem. The low teasing rate was reflected by the high confidence level of this group; as 82% denied that they have less confidence level because of their speech problem. About two-third (64%) of the group 2 parents thought that their child’s speech problems had a minor effect on their school results. Our results suggest that the parents of the CP children with speech problems had positive perception about the role of day care/school in improving the speech of their child. CP patients with speech problems showed low risk of developing problems such as confidence level, teasing by others, peer relationships and school performance. * Assistant Professor, Department of Maxillofacial Surgery and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Dentistry, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ** Consultant Pediatric Dentist, Security Forces Hospital Program, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia *** Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Goldman School of Dental Medicine, Boston University, USA Correspondence: Dr. Ra’ed Al-Sadhan, College of Dentistry, King Saud University, PO Box 60169, Riyadh 11545, Saudi Arabia. Telephone: +966-506479246, Facsimile: +966 1 4677422