Thomas is about
to be born to Mother, Taylor, and Father Marcus. Taylor and Marcus live
together in small town Hoboken, NJ. During a routine ultrasound, a cleft palate was found. With a
substantial education, Taylor and Marcus knew that this was a birth defect
affecting the orofacial cleft. The Cleft palate is categorized
as an orofacial cleft which happens early during pregnancy (Center for Disease
Control (CDC), 2014). The doctor explains that the roof of the mouth (palate) is formed
between the sixth and ninth weeks of pregnancy (CDC, 2014). A cleft palate occurred
because the tissue that makes up the roof of the mouth did not join together
completely during pregnancy (CDC, 2014). For Thomas, both the front and back
parts of the palate are open.
After finding out their child was going to have a cleft
palate, Taylor and Marcus went home and research how the cleft palate happened
and what the cause was. They found that the cause of orofacial clefts among
most infants is unknown pregnancy. They also found that this could be due to
changes in his genes. Cleft lip and cleft palate are thought to be caused by a
combination of genes and other factors, such as things the mother comes in
contact with in her environment, or what the mother eats or drinks, or certain
medications she uses during pregnancy. Taylor rethinks what possible
environmental factors that she could have been exposed to that may have caused
this birth defect. Taylor’s father was an alcoholic and Taylor has been known
to have some alcoholic tendencies. She recalls at one point having some alcoholic
beverages because she couldn’t resist. Although this is not a known cause,
Taylor and Marcus think that this may have triggered a birth defect pregnancy
(CDC, 2014).
With this knowledge of a cleft palate, the parents have to
decide if Thomas will have surgery to fix the cleft palate once he is born.
There are a lot of factors that the parents need to take into consideration.
After researching how cleft palates are treated, Taylor and Marcus find that
even after surgery that is performed on an infant, he may need additional
surgical procedures as he gets older. However, surgical repair can improve the
look and appearance of a child’s face and might also improve breathing,
hearing, and speech and language development. Children born with orofacial clefts
might need other types of treatments and services, such as special dental or
orthodontic care or speech therapy. Thomas may also need services such as
audiology because of problems with hearing and speech therapy to help with how
to feed and speak. With Thomas’s parents speaking two different first languages,
this could pose an even greater challenge for the child learning to speak.
Living in a small town in New Jersey there aren’t many services for cleft
palate directly available. If Thomas was to need these services, they would
have to travel in order to receive them. This adds a significant cost of
transportation, much less the cost of the service. Since Taylor and Marcus are
both working, this may be possible because of a substantial income, but because
they both work, they may not be able to have the time to transport him to
appointment after appointment. This is why they decided to have surgery done
once Thomas is within the first 12 months. Marcus was diagnosed with ADHD when
he was in grade school. He was diagnosed with the Predominantly
Inattentive Presentation which means it is hard for Marcus to organize or finish a task, to pay attention
to details, or to follow instructions or conversations. He also is easily
distracted or forgets details of daily routines pregnancy
(CDC, 2014). Although the cause and risk factors for ADHD are unknown, current research shows that
genetics plays an important role. This concerns Marcus that is son may also be
born with ADHD but there will be no way to no until Thomas begins developing
and starts to show symptoms of ADHD such as forgetting or losing things a lot,
has trouble taking turns, constantly fidgets, or daydreams a lot.
A prodigy is not known before birth but it means
being
able to function at an advanced adult level in some domain before age twelve.
Since this case is still in the prenatal stage, there is no evidence or test
that can show that the child will have a prodigy and the cause of prodigies are
unknown. The most common types of prodigies are normally music and math pregnancy (Solomon, 2012).
1) What should be the primary language spoken in the
house?
2) Should the Dad, Marcus, be worried that his son
may have ADHD?
3) How does having a first child with a disability impact
a family’s decision to have more children? Cite relevant data in the literature.
