Children with cleft palate (CP) and/or velopharyngeal dysfunction (VPD) often present with complex speech sound disorders. While surgery can facilitate a functional mechanism for the child to use, only speech therapy can correct the complex learned speech sound errors. The therapeutic process may be slow and labor intensive, requiring multiple years until normalization is achieved. There is no "therapy cookbook" that covers the diverse needs of the children with cleft or VPD, and what works for one child may not work for the next. Once a speech sound target has been elicited, the greatest challenge is habituating the sound in appropriate linguistic and phonemic contexts in the child's spontaneous speech. Failure of habituation results in impaired intelligibility and social stigma for the child. 

This course is designed for working clinicians in search of techniques for teaching and habituating consonants, or for those who teach or supervise clinicians in training, and is intended to be a forum for the exchange of ideas for speech therapy. It is presented by a panel of five speech pathologists who evaluate and treat children with cleft and VPD. An overview of motor learning theory will begin the study session, followed by individual and varied case studies in elicitation and habituation of particular phoneme targets. 

Continuing Education

Attendees must register, attend and evaluate each webinar to receive continuing education credit.  Presenter disclosures can be found in the "Topics" tab in the speaker bio. This course will be available on-demand through July 11, 2020.

• ACCME: ACPA designates this educational activity for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™.  Physicians should only claim credits commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. The American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
• ASHA: This program is offered for 0.10 ASHA CEUs (Intermediate Level, Professional Area).

The learner will describe procedures that can be adopted to facilitate transfer to spontaneous speech.
The learner will describe techniques for eliciting new consonant motor patterns.