AN INVESTIGATION OF NAMING AND WORD RETRIEVAL IN CHILDREN WITH CLEFT PALATE ONLY AND CHILDREN WITH CLEFT LIP AND PALATE

Expressive vocabulary (e.g., naming, word retrieval, word meaning), auditory receptive vocabulary, and nonverbal performance were compared in three age/sex-matched groups of children with Cleft Palate Only (CPO), Cleft Lip and Palate (CLP), and a Non-Cleft (NC) control group. Several factors have been suggested as critical variables contributing to the depressed language profiles generally reported for children with clefts. Therefore, the following prerequisites were employed for inclusion in the experimental groups: same surgeon and type(s) of surgical procedures, appropriate height and weight profiles, active otologic and audiological management, early and frequent speech-language pathology services, essential velo-pharyngeal competence following initial repair, age-appropriate phonological development/intelligibility, consistent management by the same Cleft Palate Team, and no known cleft-related syndrome of neurological/emotional disorder.;Results revealed CLP to be significantly differentiated from NC by poorer performance on untimed confrontation naming, and from both CPO and NC by poorer performance on rapid automized naming, word meaning, and derived full-scale I.Q.. Both CPO and CLP performed significantly poorer than NC on auditory receptive vocabulary. No significant differences emerged on free or controlled word association or nonverbal measures. Significant Gender difference within Type emerged for female CPO on untimed confrontation naming, and for male CLP on rapid automatized naming. No significant Interaction effects emerged.;Results suggest that except for receptive vocabulary, CPO perform similarly to NC, and that CLP exhibit semantic deficits on tasks of naming and word retrieval, and on word meaning, with relatively intact strategies for associative grouping and semantic categorization. A neuropsychological deficit pattern associated with language is suggested as a possible explanation for the observed language-based dysfunction in CLP. Findings suggest CLP to be at risk for future learning problems associated with depressed language performance, and argue for early diagnostic and intervention programs.;The purpose of the study was to determine if, with these variables controlled, the cleft populations still differed from the control group in the assessed language measures. Analysis was performed for Type, Gender, and Interaction effects.