Babies begin to develop their language skills from birth. There are ways to help babies develop their listening skills and communication skills. These include looking at them when speaking and singing, reading to them, and narrating your activities throughout the day.
Between 4-6 months of age, a baby should begin to babble using a variety of sounds. If a baby has a cleft of the palate, the sounds that should be encouraged are: m, n, w, y, h, as they will be able to produce these sounds. After repair of the palate, the baby should be able to practice additional sounds: b, p, d, t, g, and k.
If at any time the baby begins to use sounds that seem to come from the throat or nose, an evaluation with the team speech-language pathologist may be beneficial to avoid development of cleft-related speech errors. The speech-language pathologist will also provide strategies for helping your baby to develop good placement of your baby’s lips, teeth, and tongue for speech sounds.