Psychological interventions for the adolescent with cleft lip and palate

The normal developmental tasks of adolescence include individuation from family, development of sense of personal identity, and establishment of satisfactory peer relationships. Accomplishment of each of these tasks is potentially more difficult for the adolescent who is also coping with the ongoing treatment demands of cleft lip and palate or other craniofacial disorders (CFA). This article presents treatment strategies that can be used by multidisciplinary teams to assist the adolescent with CFA in mastering age appropriate developmental tasks.