Case histories - David

David had a palate repair in another centre. He was one of the one in four children born in the UK with a cleft palate whose palate did not function well enough during speech to close against the back of the throat and prevent air coming through the nose. This meant that, at the age of five years, he could not produce many consonants and instead often used the nasal consonants 'm', 'n' and 'ng'. Following a re-repair of his palate and an operation on the back of his throat, his speech was almost normal by the age of 6.

 

The video below consists of 3 separate videos, the first shows David before his palate re-repair. The second section of the video is taken after the re-repair when there is a marked improvement. The final section of the video is after further surgery on his palate and shows almost normal speech.