ENCantonese has a unique phonological system where its consonants, vowels and syllabic structure that are different to other languages. However, there is no speech assessment tool specifcally designed for Cantonese-speaking children with cleft lip and palate. In view of this gap in clinic practice, the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery and the Insitute of Human Communicative Research organized a seminar on ‘Perceptual Assessment of Cleft Palate Speech/ Velopharyngeal Dysfunction: An International Perspective & A Tool for Cantonese-speaking Children’ on 6 July 2019 with surgeons, specialists and speech therapists specialized in children with cleft lip and palate sharing their expertise to the participants. The seminar attracted over 170 paticipants, including speech therapists, doctors and speech therapy students. The participant not only were introduced to the newly developed speech assessment tool, they also had the opportunity to practice using the assessment tool supplemented by case studies.
