Howdy all,
I need some help. My current WIP is an historical set in Ancient Egypt. My MC is known to have had a speech impediment. Sources don't mention what kind, or how severe, or even if it was a lifelong problem, but in the course of my research I've discovered that at least one of his closest relatives suffered from, among a distressingly long list of other congenital issues, a partial cleft palate. I'm told this can run in the genes, and so seems to be a likely explanation for my MC's impediment (I think the genetics line up, though I could be wrong). Now I just have to figure out how to write it.
I've been trying to research what sort of speech problems an adult with an untreated partial cleft palate might have. There's plenty of info out there, but most of it is just technical enough I find myself drowning in a sea of jargon.
So, questions:
1) What sort of problems could my MC expect from a fairly minor partial cleft palate? I'm told there are resonance issues and pronunciation issues. Told in wonderfully precise terms that I'm sure mean volumes for those initiated to their mysteries. But for a schlub like me, I'm lost.
2)What could his family (with no concept of speech therapy) do to alleviate said problems.
3) And finally, I'd like to hear them for myself. I've tried finding videos or at least audio of patients with similar circumstances (because it's hard to write dialogue for something you've never heard), but finding recordings of subjects who haven't had the benefit of at least some surgery or speech therapy is proving challenging.
I need some help. My current WIP is an historical set in Ancient Egypt. My MC is known to have had a speech impediment. Sources don't mention what kind, or how severe, or even if it was a lifelong problem, but in the course of my research I've discovered that at least one of his closest relatives suffered from, among a distressingly long list of other congenital issues, a partial cleft palate. I'm told this can run in the genes, and so seems to be a likely explanation for my MC's impediment (I think the genetics line up, though I could be wrong). Now I just have to figure out how to write it.
I've been trying to research what sort of speech problems an adult with an untreated partial cleft palate might have. There's plenty of info out there, but most of it is just technical enough I find myself drowning in a sea of jargon.
So, questions:
1) What sort of problems could my MC expect from a fairly minor partial cleft palate? I'm told there are resonance issues and pronunciation issues. Told in wonderfully precise terms that I'm sure mean volumes for those initiated to their mysteries. But for a schlub like me, I'm lost.
2)What could his family (with no concept of speech therapy) do to alleviate said problems.
3) And finally, I'd like to hear them for myself. I've tried finding videos or at least audio of patients with similar circumstances (because it's hard to write dialogue for something you've never heard), but finding recordings of subjects who haven't had the benefit of at least some surgery or speech therapy is proving challenging.
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