Speech Disorder

Disclaimer

The information contained within this page is for informational and educational purposes ONLY. The information here is NOT intended for diagnostic purposes. Please consult with a health care professional for a diagnosis.

Information

Many people have speech impairments. People can be born with a disability, such as cleft palate, or acquire a disability, such as a brain injury, that can cause a speech impairment. Many people with speech impairments go thru surgery and/or speech therapy to improve their speech.

With a cleft palate, not everyone has to go thru speech therapy or secondary surgery to correct his or her palate. The second surgery is done to correct a condition called velopharyngeal insufficiency, or VPI, for short. VPI happens when the palate is too short to cut off air to the nasal passage during speech. This is called hypernasality. Generally, surgery is required in addition to speech therapy to correct VPI.

My Speech

I have a speech impairment due to my cleft palate. I was born with a split in the roof of my mouth. It is part of the condition that I was born with, arhinia. I've been told that my speech impairment is moderate, which means it may be difficult for me to pronounce some sounds. Some sounds that are difficult for me to pronounce are s and t.

My Experiences

In the early years, it was very hard for anyone to understand me, including my own parents. But, I managed to communicate with them. When I was four years old, I started attending speech therapy. Today, speech therapy is started at a much younger age. Back in the 1960s, speech therapy was not started until a child was at least four years old.

Once I started grade school, I had speech therapy in the earlier grades. I had to take some time out from class to attend speech therapy. By sixth grade, I was no longer in speech therapy.

In ninth grade, it was decided that I needed speech therapy. But this time, a speech pathologist who knew how to work with someone with cleft palate needed to be my speech therapist. The district decided that I needed to work with the speech therapist at the grade school in my neighborhood. That did not work because the therapist was not qualified to work with children and teenagers with cleft palate. My mom advocated with the school district. It took her a bit. But, I did get a speech therapist that was trained to work with kids and teens with cleft palate. I worked with her thru my freshman and sophomore years in high school. Between the two school years, I worked with a private speech therapist.

Now, most people can understand me well. There are times when I need to repeat myself, especially when I talk too fast or am tired. The people who are understanding far outnumber the ones who are not. I have helped answer a customer service line at work. At first, some people were surprised by my speech when I first answered the call. But, by the end of the call, they were OK with my speech.

My speech does not prevent me from doing public speaking. I've spoken at rallies and to large groups of people.

Links.

I have found one link that contains a lot of resources about speech disorders.

Net Connections to Communication Disorders and Sciences

Please feel free to email me with any links containing information about communication disorders, particularly those with cleft palate information.