Our daily routine.

Today marks the fourth full day of therapy. It feels like we've been doing this for three weeks with how much we fit into one day! We've settled into a routine and have already seen progress with all of the children! If you want the down and dirty regarding how the speech therapy aspects of this cleft palate medical mission, then this post is for you. Otherwise, stay tuned for other posts regarding the organization we are volunteering for, International Children's Surgical Foundation (ICSF), and other  adventures in the Philippines. 

Our group of two speech therapists and myself, a speech therapist in the making, see a total of 25 children. The children all have varrying histories and, therefore, therapy is a constant learning process for me. Some children received surgery for their clefts when they were young, others did not get surgery until they were teenagers, and a few have fistulas (holes in their palates). Therapy looks different for each of these children. It is a constant dance of working with what a child can do because of the structures they have and promoting proper use of their new structures. The ultimate goal is to give them the skills so they may speak effectively. 

I am amazed at how hard these children work. I wish I could bottle up their determination and use it around finals time. :) Each child receives intensive speech therapy twice a day (that is a total of 50 sessions split between the three of us each day!). We give them homework to practice between each session and they come eager to practice their sounds. We've seen so much improvement already. 

The two overarching goals are to treat resonance disorders and compensatory articulations. To treat resonance disorders, we help the children use their palate correctly in order for air flow to go through the proper cavity (oral and/or nasal) for specific sounds. Compensatory articulations are when a child has learned to make a sound incorrectly (at the back of the throat or at the level of the vocal folds). To treat these errors, we give the children skills to use the correct articulators (ie tongue). This can be simple or difficult, depending on how long a child has been using these errors! 

One of the unforeseen blessings has been to see how a child's confidence grows as his or her speech improves. They get it. They get that their speech is different than those around them. Although most of these kids have a long way to go, it has been amazing to see how their faces light up when they make improvements. I can't wait to see what confidence these kids will exude by the end of the week...

Below are some pictures of some of our therapy sessions... Enjoy!