Remote speech therapy for children with repaired cleft palate
Speech Intervention via Telepractice for Children with Repaired Cleft Palate : Randomized Controlled Trial and Assessment of Speech Production and Perception Skills
This project sees if online speech therapy helps young children who had cleft palate repairs improve how they make and hear speech sounds.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Texas Tech University Health Scis Center NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Lubbock, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11285381 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
If your child had a cleft palate repair and still struggles with certain speech sounds, this trial compares telepractice (online) speech therapy to usual approaches. Children are randomly assigned to receive structured remote treatment from licensed speech-language pathologists, and their speech is measured before and after treatment. The study uses both listener judgments and acoustic (instrumental) analyses, and it also tests how speech perception and production are related. The team aims to use these results to know whether remote therapy can effectively treat the specific compensatory articulation errors common after cleft palate repair.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal candidates are children (roughly infancy to 11 years old) with a history of repaired cleft palate who show compensatory articulation errors and can participate in telepractice sessions.
Not a fit: Children whose speech difficulties are unrelated to cleft palate anatomy, who are outside the eligible age range, or who lack reliable internet/device access may not benefit from this specific trial.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could make effective speech therapy available remotely and help more children improve speech production and listening skills after cleft palate repair.
How similar studies have performed: Small telepractice studies for speech therapy have shown promise, but rigorous randomized trials specifically for children with repaired cleft palate have not been done.
Where this research is happening
Lubbock, United States
- Texas Tech University Health Scis Center — Lubbock, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Lee, Sue Ann Soyoung — Texas Tech University Health Scis Center
- Study coordinator: Lee, Sue Ann Soyoung
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.