How Palate Repair Lets a Child Speak
Take the reading one piece at a time. For each piece: read it once, underline the sentence that says what happens, then look up any word in the list. Tap a word to see its definition.
Piece 1 of 3
Say the word "puppy" out loud, then say "mommy." For "puppy" you trap air in your mouth and pop it out. For "mommy" you let air flow up into your nose. What lets you switch is a muscular valve called the velopharynx: the soft palate (the velum) lifts up and back and presses against the back and side walls of the throat. When it closes, air goes out the mouth; when it relaxes open, air goes up the nose.
Piece 2 of 3
The muscle that lifts the velum is the levator veli palatini. In a person without a cleft, the two levator muscles meet in the midline and interlace, forming a transverse sling across the middle of the soft palate. When the sling contracts, it lifts the velum like a trampoline being pulled tight.
Piece 3 of 3
In an unrepaired cleft palate the levator never formed that midline sling. The fibers run front to back and insert abnormally onto the back edge of the bony hard palate. There is no trampoline, only two loose ends pointing the wrong way. Imaging of children with repaired cleft palate shows the levator still differs from normal in thickness, length, and symmetry, and the children with the most asymmetric muscle were the ones who still had a leaky velopharynx after surgery.
Reading the Research
- Skim the title and abstract first to get the gist.
- Circle the one sentence that states the main claim.
- Box the evidence the authors give for that claim.
- Mark one sentence that confuses you, and move on.
Now put it together: In one or two sentences, say what this whole reading is telling you about Mateo. Then go back to the lesson and fill in the guided notes.