PHONOLOGICAL & EARLY READING SKILLS IN YOUNG CHILDREN WITH OROFACIAL CLEFTS

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Children with orofacial clefts have elevated risk for a variety of neurocognitive deficts that may be associated with the embryonic processes leading to aberrant craniofacial structures. One area of particular concern is the acquisition of reading skills--recent studies suggest that between one third and one half of these children have a learning disability and/or suffer academic underachievement, with particular vulnerability in reading (Broder et al., 1998). However, as discussed below, this research has been methodologically limited in several respects. Further data are needed to evaluate early reading skills in children with clefts versus controls, to clarify the nature of the skills deficits observed among children with clefts, to generate hypotheses regarding the etiology of reading disability in this group, and to begin developing appropriate interventions. The study proposed here is among the first to use a detailed neuropsychological assessment of reading in children with clefts versus matched controls. We will evaluate phonological processing and early reading skills in a sample of 36 children ages 6-8 years with nonsyndromic clefts of the lip only (CLO), lip and palate (CLP), or palate only (CPO) and 36 matched controls. We will also explore the clinical and demographic correlates of reading in children with clefts. These data will be used to develop future studies on the neuroscience of reading disability and the efficacy of reading interventions for children with clefts.