A cleft palate means that during the early stages of pregnancy, the baby’s roof of the mouth does not join in the normal way. The lip is sometimes cleft as well as the palate. Children who are born with a cleft lip or palate usually have corrective surgery during the first few years of life. Nowadays, surgery is so good that there are few long term consequences.
However, some children with repaired cleft palate can have difficulties with speech as they get older. One type of speech difficulty affects consonants formed by the tongue in the mouth, such as /t/, /d/, /s/. This makes words like “toe”, “door” and “sun” sound distorted or even unrecognisable to listeners. These consonants can be difficult to correct, even by experienced speech and language therapists. Any long term speech difficulties are likely to have a negative effect on children’s social, psychological and educational development and future prospects.
One technique that may help to correct these abnormal articulations is electropalatography or EPG. EPG is a computer-based technique that can display the tongue's contact with the hard palate (roof of the mouth) during speech. It involves the child wearing an adapted dental plate, with sensors on the surface. When the tongue contacts the sensors, distinctive patterns for consonants are displayed on a computer screen. The patterns can be used in speech therapy to provide visual feedback so that children can learn normal patterns for consonants they find difficult.
It is not known whether EPG benefits children with cleft palate. Such information is important for speech and language therapists who may want to use the technique in their clinical practice. The review reveals that at present there are no high quality (randomised controlled trial) studies in this field to enable conclusions to be drawn about the efficacy of treatment using EPG for children with cleft palate.