Smiles for Kids Blog
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Parent-Implemented Program a Successful Early Intervention for Speech Impairment in Children with Cleft Palate
Press release from The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal:
A new study has explored the effectiveness of a parent-implemented program that works to stimulate the speech of children younger than three years old who have cleft lip and palate. The intervention resulted in speech gains for the children with clefts. The study is published in the latest issue of The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal.
Cleft lip and palate (CLP) are the most frequent birth defects in the Unites States, affecting nearly 7,000 children yearly, or 1 in every 600 children born. The main questions from the study concerned whether parents could be trained to deliver an early intervention program for children with cleft palate and to what degree the program was effective.
The participants were ten mother-child pairs in which the child had CLP and ten mother-child pairs in which the children did not have cleft. The children ranged in age from 14 to 36 months.
The results of this study showed that the mothers could be trained to deliver the intervention reliably. Increased sound inventories, increased speech accuracy, and reduced use of glottal stops were found in the children with clefts. The speech gains did not exceed those made by the children without clefts. Still, the results of the study have implications for service delivery models in which the services of speech-language pathologists are limited.
To read the entire study, click here: http://allenpress.com/pdf/10.1597-06-085.pdf
The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal is the bimonthly journal of the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association. For more information, visit http://www.cpcjournal.org.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Facial Asymmetry Persists Despite Surgery To Correct Congenital Deformity
"Adults and teens that underwent surgery as infants to correct a congenital condition that causes the forehead and face to appear uneven still have a degree of facial asymmetry years later, according to new research led by a Hasbro Children's Hospital surgeon."
Facial asymmetries in children can be a sign of other problems, such as craniosynostosis, that have not previously been diagnosed. Our Craniofacial Team can assess patients with facial asymmetries to determine the cause of the asymmetry and the potential treatment options. There are a number of craniofacial conditions associated with facial asymmetry, and children with such asymmetries should be evaluated by a craniofacial expert.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Seven score and two years later, Lincoln’s facial defects revealed
From the Columbia Missourian:
While delivering his most famous speech, Abraham Lincoln asserted that all men are created equal. But according to recent research, perhaps not all men, our nation’s 16th president included, were blessed with equal levels of health.
Our nation’s 16th president may have had some previously undiagnosed health conditions that Columbia doctors say could have been fixed had Lincoln lived a century later.
Read the article here:
Monday, February 11, 2008
Pediatric Specialists Offer Multidisciplinary Approach to Repairing Craniofacial Abnormalities
From MUHealth.org:
Two surgeons who specialize in pediatric care work within the craniofacial team at University of Missouri Health Care's Children's Hospital to repair childhood skull deformities.
Dr. Muzaffar named Editor in Chief of the Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal
Dr. Muzaffar has been named Editor in Chief of the Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal
The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal is an international, interdisciplinary journal reporting on clinical and research activities in cleft lip/palate and other craniofacial anomalies, together with research in related laboratory sciences.