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Objectives: One of the factors predicting language impairments is an early limited lexicon in children. An early limited lexicon can also lead to limited performances in other language areas. This study was aimed to examine receptive and expressive vocabulary in 8-16 month-old children with cleft lip and palate as a predictor of development in other language areas.
Materials: The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) was used to collect data. Thirty children with cleft palate/lip and palate who had visited the Isfahan’s cleft lip and palate team were analyzed and compared to 30 children without cleft lip and palate.
Results: According to the study results, there was no significant difference between the children with cleft lip and palate and the normal children in terms of the number of words, but the children with cleft lip and palate had significantly less expressive vocabulary than the normal children.
Discussion: The results indicated that children with cleft lip and palate experience a delay in the development of the number of expressive vocabulary, and this delay affects higher levels of language, reading and writing skills of these children. This indicates the importance of providing early evaluations and interventions for children with cleft lip and palate.