Cognitive language performance of children with cleft lip and palate in reading and writing acquisition phase

摘要

Purpose: to identify the cognitive-linguistic skills necessary for children with cleft lip and palate, in order to learn how to read and write. Methods: 120 children, with 5 and 6 years old, attending Kindergarten II and 1st grade of primary school, were divided into two groups: G1, consisting of 60 children with cleft lip and palate, and G2, with 60 children without developmental alterations. The Raven Colored Progressive Matrices, the Phonological Skills Profile and the Boston Naming Test were employed. Results: comparing the performances of the groups, there was statistical difference in intellectual functions, indicating loss in cognitive abilities of G1 (p = 0.019). The cognitive-linguistic skills were classified as "Under Attention" for both groups, and discrepancy in G1 was more representative, with 66.7%. Conclusion: the language skills necessary for reading and writing acquisition proved to be deficient in the cleft lip and palate population, presenting levels of cognitive performance lower than expected for the age and education in most of the modalities evaluated. Limiting environmental factors and low socio-cultural status of the sample were suggestive of additional interference to the acquisition of cognitive-linguistic pre-skills necessary for satisfactory performance of the academic tasks, such as reading and writing.