A Systematic Review of Early Speech Interventions for Children with Cleft Palate

Background
Children with cleft palate with or without cleft lip (CP±L) are at high risk of problems with early speech sound production, and these difficulties can persist into later childhood. Early intervention could help to reduce the number of children whose problems become persistent. However, much research in the field to date has focused on older children. There is a need to determine if providing intervention during the phase of early typical speech development leads to better outcomes.

Aims
To review the evidence for the effectiveness of interventions targeting speech, delivered in the first 3 years of life for children with CP±L, and discuss factors such as intervention type, facilitator, dosage, outcome measures and the age of the child.

Methods & Procedures
The systematic review was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42019121964). Eight bibliographic databases including CINAHL and MEDLINE were searched in August 2018. Studies were included if participants received speech and language interventions before 37 months and if they reported outcomes for speech. Two reviewers independently completed inclusion reviews, quality analysis and data extraction.

Outcome & Results
The review included seven papers: one pilot randomized controlled trial, one controlled trial, four cohort studies and one case series report. Interventions largely took a naturalistic approach, namely focused stimulation and milieu teaching. The findings provide preliminary support for naturalistic interventions and suggest that these interventions can be delivered by parents with suitable training. Studies included in the review provided low-strength evidence with variation in both the type of intervention, the manner of delivery and in the risk of bias in the designs used.

Conclusions & Implications
The papers included in this review suggest that early naturalistic interventions can have positive impacts on the speech development of children with CP±L. However, the reported methodological quality of the publications overall was weak, and the current evidence lacks clarity and specificity in terms of therapy technique, delivery and optimum age of delivery. Future research should use more robust methodological designs to determine whether early speech interventions are beneficial for children born with CP±L.