One Size Does Not Fit All: From a Common Approach Towards Performance-specific Speech Intervention and Long-term Learning in Children With a Cleft Palate

Status: Recruiting
Location: See location...
Intervention Type: Behavioral
Study Type: Interventional
Study Phase: Not Applicable
SUMMARY

Speech therapy in children with a palate deals with two scientific challenges that will be addressed in this project. The first challenge is selecting the best speech approach for a child with a specific cleft speech characteristic (CSC). Many speech therapists use a 'one-size-fits-all' approach to treat compensatory CSCs resulting in poor short- and long-term speech outcomes. To increase the effectiveness and quality of cleft speech care, it is necessary to find the best match between a specific therapy and a given type of CSC. Therefore, this proposal will compare the effect of 3 different speech approaches on the speech and quality of life in Dutch speaking children with different types of CSCs. The second challenge is selecting the best speech approach to enhance long-term learning and transfer of newly established speech skills to untrained consonants. To date, research mainly focused on immediate therapy effects. It is unknown if permanent speech changes occur. Hence, this project will also investigate the short-term and long-term learning effects (retention and transfer) of the different speech approaches from the first objective. This proposal will improve evidence-based and patient-tailored cleft speech therapy.

Eligibility
Participation Requirements
Sex: All
Minimum Age: 4
Maximum Age: 12
Healthy Volunteers: f
View:

• Belgian Dutch-speaking children with a cleft palate with or without a cleft lip

• Aged between 4 and 12 years

• Presence of at least one compensatory speech error in their speech based on the perceptual assessment of one experienced speech-language pathologist

Locations
Other Locations
Belgium
Department of Rehabilitation Sciences
RECRUITING
Ghent
Time Frame
Start Date: 2022-10-01
Estimated Completion Date: 2026-09-30
Participants
Target number of participants: 135
Treatments
Active_comparator: Children with anterior oral cleft speech characteristics
To investigate the best speech therapy approach for children with anterior oral cleft speech characteristics, we will provide three different interventions.
Experimental: Children with posterior oral cleft speech characteristics
To investigate the best speech therapy approach for children with potserior oral cleft speech characteristics, we will provide three different interventions.
Experimental: Children with non-oral cleft speech characteristics
To investigate the best speech therapy approach for children with non-oral cleft speech characteristics, we will provide three different interventions.
Related Therapeutic Areas
Sponsors
Leads: University Ghent
Collaborators: Research Foundation Flanders

This content was sourced from clinicaltrials.gov