Cognitive, auditory, language and speech skills of children with cleft lip and palate

Abstract

Introduction: Cleft lip/palate can affect such various aspects of children development as cognitive, auditory, speech and language skills. Delayed diagnosis and comprehensive assessment of these children may exert devastating effects on these domains. Therefore, developmental skills of children with cleft lip and palate were evaluated in this study. Materials and Methods: Seventy-two children (40 normal, 32 cleft lip/palate), aged 3 to 6 years at the time of study, participated in this analytic-descriptive study for which a control-study design was adopted. All children were evaluated by Niyusha Developmental Scale. This scales targets the development of cognitive, auditory, speech, receptive and expressive language skills. Mann-Whitney’s U test was used to compare the mean scores between two groups and the Pearson correlation coefficient test was applied to examine the correlation between variables. Results: This study revealed a statistically significant difference in mean scores of speech and expressive language skills between the two groups (P < 0.05). The occurrence of middle ear infections in children with cleft lip/palate was greater than the normal group. Conclusion: Developmental skills in children with cleft palate and lip are affected by structural deficits. Comprehensive assessment of these children can help to design accurate interventional programs. Keywords: Cleft palate and lip, Cognitive skill, Auditory skill, Speech skill, Language skill, Newsh developmental scale test