Abstract
To evaluate the adaptability of children with cleft lip and/or palate to school, their mental images of the school environment were investigated by a semantic differential methed survey using 23 pairs of adjectives. The following eight places inside and outside of school were chosen as environmental factors: classroom, gymnasium, health care room, teachers' office, playground, passageway, road leading to school, and road leading back to home. Fifty children with cleft lip and/or palate (ages 10-11 years) were enrolled in this study. The children with cleft lip and/or palate had a feeling of liberation in the teachers' office and health care room. They did not have an established feeling of relaxation or affinity in the classroom, gymnasium, playground, hallway, road to school, and road leading back to home, which were the main areas of their school activity. This suggested that self-expression and adaptation were difficult for these children.
