July 20, 2016 | Blogs and News
Content by Sienna Holmes; NCCAPM logo via The NCCAPM Organization; Information adapted from the ASHA and the CDC.
In honor of July’s National Cleft & Craniofacial Awareness & Prevention Month (NCCAPM), Children’s Music Fund (CMF) is showing support by sharing how music therapy can help patients affected by cleft & craniofacial conditions.
Cleft palate is a birth defect in which the roof of the baby’s mouth does not form correctly during pregnancy. The term cleft itself means a split or a divide. People with cleft palate have to deal with a variety of impediments, and may need a speech-language pathologist to help with feeding and speech and language development. To help those with cleft palate develop the ability to speak, music therapy can be an effective tool in easing the therapeutic process.
Because of the lyrical nature of speech itself, music therapy can be a helpful component in speech therapy. According to the Voices: The World Forum For Music Therapy, in non-verbal autistic children music therapy can aid the process and allow these children to speak sooner than they would have compared to other types of speech therapy. These results can also be seen with children with cleft palate.
Therapists use wind instruments to enhance motor control of the lips, and humming to aid in specific speech delays. Infants have an increased ability to hear sounds, and using music and music therapy to aid children afflicted with cleft palate uses the senses the infant has to improve on the senses they do not have.
Music and language are “two sisters”, and the harmony between the two can create a better life for children with cleft palate. These music therapy practices can help children affected by cleft & craniofacial conditions cope with their illness without added side effects. Help CMF on its mission of healing through music by volunteering or donating today, via theCMF.org