The Development of manual for speech and language treatment for parents of children with cleft palate ages 0-3 years old

Background: Cleft palate is a congenital disability affecting the palate’s structure and function, which may lead to delayed speech and language development and communication disorders. There is a shortage of speech therapists in Thailand. Therefore, developing a manual for speech and language treatment for the parents of children with a cleft palate would be an essential early intervention that parents could perform. Objectives: This research aimed to develop a speech and language treatment manual for parents of children with cleft palate ages 0-3 years old and evaluate the manual’s effectiveness, satisfaction, and feedback. Materials and methods: This research was divided into Phase 1, which involved developing a speech and language treatment manual for parents of children with cleft palate ages 0-3 years old and assessing its validity and reliability. Phase 2 tested the manual’s effectiveness by conducting a three-month of 16 participants, who were divided into two groups: A control group without the manual and an experimental group with the manual and phase 3 data analysis. Results: The content validity of the manual and satisfaction of the questionnaires were found to have a content validity index of 0.87 and 0.92, respectively. The total language and speech development scores before and after participating between groups found a statistically significant difference. After participating, the number of the experimental group who passed the 90th percentile of language development was higher than the control group. The language between the children and parents showed that the experimental group displayed more communication skills than the control group. Conclusion: The speech and language treatment manual for parents of children with cleft palate ages 0-3 years old could stimulate the language and speech development of the experimental group more effectively than the control group that did not receive the manual.