Tad - made for TV Movie

[Eva Elisabeth]

...its duration contributed to a loss in learning potential...

No - certainly not any in potential. A cleft palate doesn't affect intellectual abilities. It may affect self-confidence/socialization, but he wasn't the most self-inconvenient kid, and in the White House years he had always had private tutors, thus wasn't exposed to bullying classmates. IMO there was no reason from the " cleft palate point of view" not to concentrate on and properly learn his RRR. I would think what is now called ADHD is what caused his deficiencies.