Palate Most PRS babies have a cleft palate, that is caused by the tongue not properly descending during development.
PRS babies have a horseshoe shaped wide cleft, typically involving both the soft and hard palates.
Most teams recommend that the palate repair be completed before speech develops, and also to have speech evaluated at preschool age. Sometimes an artificial device is used prior to surgery to aid in narrowing of the cleft before surgery. The palate is repaired surgically at anywhere from 9 months to 18 months. It could happen either earlier or later than that. This factor is really dependent on the size of the baby and what other conditions are present.