Early speech and language development in children with velocardiofacial syndrome

Speech-language impairment is one of the most common clinical features in v elocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS). This report describes the speech and langu age development of four children with VCFS studied longitudinally from 6 to 30 months of age and compares their performance with three groups of child ren: (1) normally developing children, (2) children with cleft lip and pala te, and (3) children with isolated cleft palate. The data show that young c hildren with VCFS show a receptive-expressive language impairment from the onset of language. Further, speech and expressive language development were severely delayed beyond a level predicted by their other developmental or receptive language performance. The children with VCFS showed severe limita tions in speech sound inventories and early vocabulary development that far exceeded those shown by the children with cleft lip and palate and childre n with isolated cleft palate. This study indicates that young children with VCFS emerge from a critical speech and language learning period with sever e limitations in their communicative abilities. Further studies are require d to describe the later course of these early speech and language impairmen ts and to explore the relationship to learning disabilities described for o lder children with VCFS. Am. J. Med. Genet. (Neuropsychiatr. Genet.) 88: 71 4-723, 1999. (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.