Resendiz to discuss El Salvador cleft palate project at upcoming Rotary Club meeting

Maria Resendiz, Ph.D., will discuss a project that delivers speech therapy to Salvadoran children after surgical treatment for cleft lip or palate at an upcoming Rotary Club of San Marcos meeting.

Resendiz, her co-director and students from the Texas State University Department of Comm unication Di s o r ders train therapists in El Salvador on best practices for delivering speech therapy to Salvadoran children.

Resendiz is a bilingual speech-language pathologist with 20 years of experience and an associate professor at Texas State. She directs the PLATICAR project, which stands for Providing Language and Articulation Therapy in Countries and Regions. They help children learn how to produce sounds with a repaired palate or repaired lip.

The surgery and medical treatment are delivered by Austin Smiles — The Austin Plastic Surgery Foundation. The Salvadoran Institute for Integral Rehabilitation, Austin Smiles, and a Salvadoran Rotary Club fund the surgery and speech therapy, making the medical care and speech therapy free to families.

Maria Resendiz, Ph.D., will discuss a project that delivers speech therapy to Salvadoran children after surgical treatment for cleft lip or palate at an upcoming Rotary Club of San Marcos meeting. Above, a before and after photo of a treated Salvadoran child, courtesy of Austin Smiles. Photo courtesy of Rotary Club of San Marcos

Children with cleft lip and palate often face one or more health and developmental complications without proper treatment. These complications include difficulties in feeding, speech, breathing, and hearing as well as compromised oral health and frequent ear infections.

Resendiz will speak to the Rotary Club on Thursday, Oct. 8 at 11:45 a.m. at the Holiday Inn and Conference Center, 105 Bintu Drive, San Marcos. Visitors are welcome. Rotary is nonprofit, nonreligious and nonpolitical. The San Marcos club is 100 years old.