An assessment of informative-counseling procedures for cleft palate children.

32 children with cleft palate and their mothers were interviewed for the purpose of learning what information they had about cleft and cleft management. Their responses were compared with standards specified by eight cleft palate specialists from four disciplines. The findings indicate that the specialists were somewhat inconsistent in what they expected the families to know about clefts and in their routine counseling procedures to provide the information. In general, the mothers had appropriate knowledge about clefts but predicted that their children knew more about clefts and cleft management than was actually the case. The children had less than adequate information about the general impact of a cleft, the etiology of clefts, the rationale for cleft management they had received, and future management of their problem. The results of the study indicate the need or more systematic procedures for providing information to the child with a cleft. The results also suggest the need for additional research about the general counseling process.