Intervention for Young Children with VPD

Question

Answer

Yes.  First of all under the age of 3 we always say work on quantity not quality.  In other words, how much is the child talking?  How much are they understanding?  So language is the most important consideration under the age of three.  At the age of 3 the child is old enough to evaluate velopharyngeal function.  We can put the child in speech therapy or if the child needs surgery the surgery should be done between the ages of 3 and 5. Our goal is to have as close to normal speech as possible by the time they enter kindergarten.  But of course you can still stimulate speech production under the age of three by just having the child do sound practice and imitating.

Dr. Ann Kummer is Senior Director of the Division of Speech Pathology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Professor of Otolaryngology at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. She is the author of numerous professional articles, 15 book chapters, an inventor of the Oral-Nasal Listener, and author of the SNAP nasometry test (KayPentax).