Types of clefts and multianomaly craniofacial conditions

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in the public schools or other nonmedical settings rarely see infants or small children with unrepaired clefts. When children with repaired clefts appear in their caseloads, it may be difficult to comprehend what the situation was before the child had surgery. Clefts vary widely in their original severity, which has a direct bearing on how the repaired cleft looks and how the orofacial structures (lip, teeth, and palate) affect speech when the child comes into the SLP's caseload. It is important to understand that a high percentage of children with nonsyndromic clefts also have other structural or functional disorders that affect their ability to accomplish their goals in life. Multianomaly, complex craniofacial conditions (associations, sequences, and syndromes) are even rarer in nonmedically based SLP practices. However, because medical habilitation for these cases is now much more easily available and because families who frequent the Internet will know that the services of an SLP may be needed for their child, it is necessary for the SLP to know some basic characteristics of these conditions and to know where to find needed information.