We provide speech therapy online for children, adolescents and adults with cleft lip and cleft palate.
We are a registered NDIS provider and use an inclusive approach to therapy, where the person can be in the comfort and familiarity of their own home.
How can speech therapy benefit people with cleft lip and cleft palate?
Speech therapy can provide significant benefits for individuals with cleft lip and cleft palate in several ways:
1. **Articulation and Speech Clarity**: Individuals with cleft lip and palate may experience speech sound disorders due to structural differences in their oral cavity. Speech therapists can help improve articulation, teaching clients to produce sounds correctly and enhancing overall speech clarity.
2. **Resonance Management**: Clefts can affect how sound resonates in the oral and nasal cavities, potentially leading to hypernasality (excessive nasal resonance) or hyponasality (insufficient nasal resonance). Speech therapists can work on strategies to modify resonance and improve the quality of the voice.
3. **Language Development**: Early intervention through speech therapy can support language development. Therapists can provide activities and strategies that promote vocabulary expansion, sentence formation, and other language skills.
4. **Feeding and Swallowing**: In some cases, individuals with cleft lip and palate may have difficulty feeding, especially infants. Speech therapists with specialized training can assist with feeding techniques to ensure safe and effective swallowing.
5. **Social Communication Skills**: Speech therapy can enhance pragmatic language skills, which are important for effective communication in social contexts. This includes turn-taking, conversation skills, and understanding non-verbal cues.
6. **Counseling and Support**: Speech therapists can offer emotional support and counseling for individuals and their families, helping them navigate the challenges associated with communication difficulties. This holistic approach can improve confidence and social participation.
7. **Collaboration with Multidisciplinary Teams**: Speech therapists often work as part of a team with other healthcare professionals, such as surgeons, orthodontists, and pediatricians. This collaborative effort ensures comprehensive care and helps address all aspects of the individual’s needs.
8. **Strategies for Ongoing Challenges**: Even after surgical intervention, some individuals may still face speech and language challenges. Speech therapy provides ongoing support and strategies to address these lasting effects.
In summary, speech therapy plays a crucial role in the comprehensive care of individuals with cleft lip and cleft palate, helping them develop effective communication skills and improving their quality of life. Early intervention is particularly important for maximizing these benefits.
Services for children, adolescents and adults
We have speech therapists who work with children, adolescents and adults, and we have therapists who have experience with cleft lip and cleft palate. Read more about our therapists here.
NDIS registered provider
We are a registered NDIS provider and work with self-managed, plan-managed and agency-managed clients.
If your are an NDIS provider or support coordinator we can provide reliable speech therapy for clients with cleft lip and cleft palate in any location. Refer a client and we’ll connect you to the right clinician.
Is online speech therapy effective?
Yes! A growing body of evidence shows that online delivery of therapy can be as effective as face to face. Online therapy has many other benefits too, including being convenient and accessible for people in regional and rural areas.
How does online speech therapy work?
At Umbo online therapy is not just zoom plus business-as-usual. It’s much more diverse than simply videoconferencing. Umbo therapists provide an individualised approach to each person, using the latest evidence, and a variety of technologies and engagement techniques.
Umbo champions person-centred therapy. It means the person and their family/support people leads the conversation. We believe that the most effective therapy occurs when support is given in the environment where the person lives, learns, works or plays. Therefore we work with the family, and teach skills to you or to other supporters. This means you’re achieving real-life goals, rather than just achieving goals in a clinic.
We are a certified social enterprise helping Australian families access allied health services.