Catherine Crowley and Miriam Baigorri lead annual trips to Ghana with their graduate students in speech language pathology from Teachers College Columbia University. They provide therapy to people with communication disorders and work closely with special education teachers, parents, nurses, and doctors. January 2012.
Category: Cleft Palate
Cleft palate is a condition in which the hard palate does not fuse together during embryonic development. This results in a hole in the hard palate, which may or may not be covered by soft tissue, that can lead to speech and feeding issues. Cleft palate can co-occur with cleft lip but cleft lip can also be present without a cleft in the actual palate.
Ghana 2013: Cleft Lip Isn’t Always Visible
We went on a safari through Mole National Park and got to see many animals, including various types of antelope, baboons, warthogs, and most exciting and unexpected of all, a group of 8 elephants! We learned a lot about the park and the animals’ behavior and movements from the guides, but the most surprising thing we learned was that one of the guides was actually familiar with speech therapy and even with cleft lips, because a baby in his village had recently been born with a cleft. He said that no one had ever seen the baby, though. Our plan immediately became visiting the baby.
International Resources: Parent‐Friendly Information about Nonspeech Oral Motor Exercises in Spanish/ Información Amena Para Padres Sobre Ejercicios Motores Orales
Parent-Friendly ternformation about Nonspeech Oral Motor Exercise Spanish.pdf
This document is intended for SLPs to use in discussions with parents.
Este document es para que los fonoaudiólogos lo puedan usar en conversaciones con padres sobre los ejercicios motores orales. Read More
International Resources: Feeding Babies with Cleft Palate: Parent Handout in Spanish/ Alimentación para Bebés con Paladar Hendido
Cleft Palate Feeding- Spanish.pdf
This handout was created and designed by Dr. Cate Crowley, Miriam Baigorri, and Jayne Miranda. It is a parent friendly single page document with easy to understand language and accompanying illustrations to help parents understand the basics of feeding a baby with cleft palate.
Esta información ha sido creado y diseñado por la Dra. Cate Crowley, Miriam Baigorri, y Jayne Miranda. Es de una sola página en un lenguaje que es fácil de comprender para los padres con bebés con el paladar hendido. También incluye dibujos para apoyar el entendimiento de cómo alimentar a un bebé con el paladar hendido.
International Resources: Feeding Babies with Cleft Palate with Breast/Bottle: Parent Handout in English
Feeding Babies with Cleft Palate English- Hand out w-logo.pdf
This handout was created and designed by Dr. Cate Crowley, Miriam Baigorri, and Jayne Miranda. It is a parent friendly single page document with easy to understand language and accompanying illustrations to help parents understand the basics of feeding a baby with cleft palate using the breast or bottle. Read More
International Resources: Parent‐Friendly Information about Nonspeech Oral Motor Exercises
OralMotor EnglishWatson-Lof.pdf
This document is intended for SLPs to use in discussions with parents.
Ghana 2013: From Incentives to Intensive, Tamale Teaching Hospital
We headed to the northern region of Ghana today. After a short flight and a broken down bus, we made it safely to the Tamale Teaching Hospital and were fortunate enough to meet with Dr. Ken Sagoe, CEO of the hospital. He spoke to us about initiatives by different groups to address cleft palate and expressed the need for speech language pathologists and other rehabilitative professionals in Ghana. He also talked about how there needs to be a shift from groups that come to Ghana, repair clefts, and leave, to groups that train Ghanaian surgeons instead. This would be better for the post-surgical care of patients, and would allow more cleft patients to be served. Dr. Sagoe mentioned that at this point in time, 3 surigical missions were still coming to Tamale between June and December this year: June, The Graft Foundation (from within Ghana), July, Operation Smile and September, a team of Ghanaian doctors abroad in Britain and British doctors.
Colombia 2013 Cleft speech and feeding course Healing the Children
We were invited to bring the speech component to the 20th anniversay of the Healing the Children surgical mission in Neiva, Colombia. With our colleagues, Dr. David Hoffman (medical director) and Dr. Sidney Eisig and a team of 70 surgeons, orthodontists, pediatricians, nurses, and medical records we were together June 5 to 12, 2013. We gathered a team of Miriam Baigorri, Jayne Miranda, Jessica Baquero, and students Theresa Donohue, Carla Montoya, and Kirea Crowley from Teachers College Columbia University. We invited 16 Colombian-based SLPs (fonoaudiologists) to join us in a cleft palate speech and feeding 5-day intensive course. We had a great group of Colombian SLPs. I knew that the Colombian programs were strong because I have met many who were students in the Bilingual Extension Institute. Read More
