Global and communicative development skills in preschool children with cleft lip and palate.

Importance: Cleft lip and palate (CLP) is globally among the most common childhood malformations. This disorder impacts childhood development, including speech and language, and affects children worldwide.

Objective: To analyze child development skills (adaptive fine motor, gross motor, personal-social, and language) in preschool children with isolated CLP compared with children without this malformation.

Specific language impairment: linguistic and neurobiological aspects.

Specific language impairment (SLI) occurs when children present language maturation, at least 12 months behind their chronological age in the absence of sensory or intellectual deficits, pervasive developmental disorders, evident cerebral damage, and adequate social and emotional conditions. The aim of this study was to classify a group of children according to the subtypes of SLI and to correlate clinical manifestations with cortical abnormalities. Seventeen children with SLI were evaluated.