Information for patients

You may find the following online resources helpful:

For early babble activity ideas:

• Babble advice video (produced by the South West Cleft Team) (opens in a new tab)
• South West Cleft Service - University Hospitals Bristol (opens in a new tab)
• Show Me a Sound (produced by the Spires Cleft Centre) (opens in a new tab)
• The Babble Bag (produced by the South Wales Cleft Team) (opens in a new tab)

For tips and ideas to help support early language development:

• Speech and Language (opens in a new tab)
• Tiny Happy People - BBC (opens in a new tab)

For information on Glue Ear

• Glue ear | NHS website (opens in a new tab)

If you would like any further advice before then please do not hesitate to get in touch.

An introduction to the Palate Investigation Clinic for young children.

In this video the palate lifts to close the gap between the mouth and the nasal cavity. This prevents air from escaping out of the nose during normal speech.

In this video the palate lifts but doesn't close the gap between the mouth and nasal cavity. Air escapes from the nose during normal speech.

This video is a very rough demonstration of increasing the length of the palate with a buccal flap operation. In this operation a flap of tissue is taken from the cheek and placed in between the hard and soft palate.

This video is a very rough demonstration of reducing the gap between the palate and the pharyngeal wall with a pharyngoplasty operation.