When a child has a cleft lip only, hearing problems do not arise. However, when there is a cleft in the palate, there can be a hearing impairment. This does not always happen, but your child's hearing should be checked at approximately 12 months of age. Poor hearing can adversely affect your child's speech. Treatment of hearing problems involves day case surgery, usually resulting in the insertion of grommets which help to drain fluid and allow air into the middle ear, resulting in the hearing being brought back up to normal.
Grommets usually extrude themselves.
The associated hearing difficulties should disappear after the first few years. The presence of a cleft and any associated speech problem should not be interpreted as an indication of a learning disorder or slowness of learning. There is no co-relation between a child having a cleft and their intellectual ability. There is the possibility that some children with cleft palate may lag slightly in their language development. This is something that the speech and language therapist monitors and address in the course of the therapy that the child will receive.