The Effect of Using Symbolic Gestures on the Speech and Language Development in Prelinguistic Children Born With Cleft Palate

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

Children born with a cleft lip and palate (CLP) are known to be at risk for speech-language disorders that impact academic and social emotional growth. Even at very young ages (\<3 years), speech-language disorders are already observed. It is hypothesized that speech-language intervention delivered before the age of 3 years old could decrease the impact of CLP on speech-language development. This would result in a decreased need for speech-language therapy on the long-term and a reduced burden of care on children, families and health services. However, no evidence is yet available to support any specific model of early speech-language intervention in this population. Consequently, no standardized clinical practice guidelines are available yet. Symbolic gesture training in combination with verbal input expands the natural communication of young children including multimodal speech-language input (i.e., verbal and manual input) via caregivers who act as co-therapists. To contribute to the evidence-based practice in the field of cleft speech therapy, this research project aims to determine the effectiveness and feasibility of symbolic gesture training in one-year old children with CLP by comparing different intervention approaches based on perceptual, psychosocial and qualitative outcome measures.

Eligibility
Participation Requirements
Sex: All
Minimum Age: 1
Maximum Age: 2
Healthy Volunteers: f
View:

• Born with cleft palate (with or without cleft lip)

• Having Dutch as mother tongue

Locations
Other Locations
Belgium
Ghent University Hospital
RECRUITING
Ghent
Contact Information
Primary
Kim Bettens, PhD
Kim.Bettens@UGent.be
+32 9 332 94 26
Backup
Kristiane Van Lierde, PhD
Kristiane.Vanlierde@UGent.be
+32 9 332 23 91
Time Frame
Start Date: 2023-11-09
Estimated Completion Date: 2027-10-30
Participants
Target number of participants: 30
Treatments
Experimental: Symbolic Gesture Training Group
Caregivers of children who are assigned to the SGT group will participate in three caregiver training meetings to learn how to use infant signing in combination with verbal training to promote the speech and language development of their child. These meetings will take place 1 month (meeting 1), 2 months (meeting 2) and 3 months (meeting 3) after baseline assessments are performed (T0). Each meeting will take two hours. After the first training session (meeting 1), caregivers will start using the symbolic gestures to support verbal in- and output at home with their child.
Active_comparator: Verbal Training Group
Caregivers of children who are assigned to the VT group will participate in three caregiver training meetings to learn how to use verbal training to promote the speech and language development of their child. These meetings will take place 1 month (meeting 1), 2 months (meeting 2) and 3 months (meeting 3) after baseline assessments are performed (T0). Each meeting will take two hours. After the first training session (meeting 1), caregivers will start using supporting verbal in- and output at home with their child.
No_intervention: No Intervention Control Group
Standard clinical care at this moment at the Cleft Palate Teams of the University Hospitals of Ghent and Leuven includes providing information to caregivers about speech-language development and encouraging caregivers to communicate with their children. This information will be orally provided by an SLP during a standard clinical appointment at the cleft team at the age of 12 months. A brochure including this information will be provided. Caregivers of children who will be assigned to group C will have the opportunity to receive the most effective intervention (SGT or VT) after finishing the study.
Related Therapeutic Areas
Sponsors
Collaborators: University Ghent
Leads: University Hospital, Ghent

This content was sourced from clinicaltrials.gov