Language Sample Analysis of Children With Cleft Lip And Palate: A Comparative Study

Background: Cleft palate (CP) with or without cleft lip (CL/P) are the most common  craniofacial birth defects.  Cleft lip and palate (CLP) can affect children’s communication skills.  The present study aimed to evaluate the language production skills in regards to morphology and syntax (morphosyntactic) of children with CLP . Method: In current cross-sectional study, 58 Persian-language children (28 children with CLP and 30 children without craniofacial anomalies = non-clefts) were participated. Gathering Language samples of the children were done by using the picture description method. The 50 consecutive intelligible utterances of children were analyzed by using the Persian developmental sentence scoring (PDSS) as a clinical morphosyntactic measurement tool.  Result: The PDSS total scores in children with CLP were lower than non-clefts children.  A significant difference was found between the children with CLP and children without craniofacial anomalies in the mean of PDSS total scores (p = 0.0001).  Conclusion: Children with CLP demonstrate poor ability for using of the morphosyntactic elements. Therefore, it should be considered that  how children  with CLP are using  of the grammatical components.