Selected developmental factors of cleft palate children between two and thirty-three months of age

The literature suggests that cleft palate children and adults perform below their peers on both linguistic and nonlinguistic tasks. The purpose of this investigation was to ascertain if developmental delay could be observed in 24 cleft palate children below the age of three years when compared to matched controls. Three developmental scales were administered to all infants, and complete medical histories and current weights were obtained. Results indicated that the performance of the cleft palate subjects paralleled but fell below their peers on all developmental subtests. The differences were significant (p is less than .05) on three language subtests and on one personal-social and one motor subtest. The mean percentile weight also differed significantly (p is less than .05). Multivariate analysis explored the relationship of 1) extent of cleft, 2) sex, 3) hearing loss, 4) length of hospitalization, and 5) weight to the developmental scores. The extent of the cleft proved to be significant.