What are the areas of professional practice that capture my interest? With respect to the general topic, what would an essential question for me be? What do I already know about this topic? What don’t I know about this topic?

I have come to realize that it is the physical part of speech that most interests me. I am more interested in the anatomy of speech than the language portion of speech. My full attention is given in my Voice Disorder class this semester…the same as it was given in my Speech Anatomy class last semester. I want to know how everything works, what makes it work, and what is it that happened that causes it not to work perfectly. I find myself being bored with Language Disorders. As in week 2’s assignment I am still intrigued by cleft palate.
My essential question has changed from last week. It was a little too broad and also I feel as if I need to know more about cleft palate before I begin trying to deal with the whole insurance and medical card issue.

Last weeks: What are the requirements for surgery on a cleft palate/lip patient and will a government medical card cover the expense of surgery and therapy?

This week: What causes cleft palate and what can be done to “cure” it?

I have been drudging up information on the subject and although I still do not know a lot, I feel as if I learn something new everyday. I have recently discovered that cleft palate is the fourth most common birth defect. Also, it occurs in 1 of every 700 children. More often than I had realized. I know it is a birth defect usually developed in the 1st trimester of pregnancy. I have also learned that if you have had one baby with a cleft palate the chances it will happen again get more likely with every cleft palate birth or if it is in your family history.
I still do not know what exactly is done to fix a cleft palate only that it has to be done in a series of surgeries and has the best results if done early in life. I also want to dig deeper into the role of the SLP as I have seen on many sites that they are a key part of the collaborative team.