A New Therapeutic Technique for the Treatment of Velopharyngeal Incompetence

Abstract

A new therapeutic technique for the treatment of velopharyngeal incompetence during speech was administered to four subjects ranging in age from four to 19 years. The technique is an operant procedure designed to utilize successive approximation to competent speech via competent blowing or whistling closure mechanisms. The technique is based on cinefluoroscopic observations of normals utilizing the same closure mechanism for speech, blowing, and whistling plus videofluoroscopic observations of cleft-palate subjects who were capable of attaining normal closure patterns for blowing and whistling, but not for speech. It is speculated that speech incompetence in individuals who can achieve closure during blowing and whistling is a result of an error in learning.