The treatment of cleft lip and palate still varies widely across the UK. This leads to different requirements from the Speech and Language Therapist at differing times/ages. Some plastic surgeons repair the lip virtually at birth and the palate at 3 months of age while most wait much longer.
Feeding advice is always the first speech and language therapy intervention, which is usually readily available as emergency procedure within the NHS. Hearing problems are often associated with cleft palate so that sounds or language may be delayed. Advice and support is available from Small Talk for all the subsequent problems associated with cleft lip and palate at the different ages and stages of development.