PURPOSE: To assess the school performance of students from 1st to 8th grade of Elementary School with cleft lip and palate without associated anomalies, and to correlate possible interfering factors, according to the opinion of their teachers. METHODS: The methodology of this study was divided into two stages. The first stage was a retrospective analysis of 61 medical records of patients with cleft lip and palate without associated anomalies, regularly enrolled in Elementary School (1st to 8th grades). The first stage had the aim to characterize the profile of the participants regarding gender, socioeconomic status, type of cleft, tympanometry, and speech intelligibility. The second stage involved the application of a questionnaire to be answered by the teachers of these subjects, in order to verify their perceptions regarding the school performance of these students. Results were statistically analyzed. RESULTS: The analysis of questionnaires showed that only 20.7% of the teachers believed that their students with cleft lip and palate have school performance below the average of the class. There was no significant difference in the association between school performance and the possible intervening factors, such as gender, socioeconomic status, type of cleft, tympanometry, and speech intelligibility. CONCLUSION: The school performance of most students with cleft lip and palate without associated anomalies was considered satisfactory by their teachers, that is, within the average, considering the performance of other students in their classes.
Cleft lip; Learning disorders; Educational status; Education, Primary and secondary; Perception; Faculty; Underachievement
