A fourth-year medical student travels to Asia to participate in a medical mission. On the first day, she sees a mother and her two-year-old child (Figure A). The mother states that as an infant, the child was slow to gain weight, but was otherwise healthy and her pregnancy was uncomplicated. The child is now learning to speak, but is having difficulty. What is the embryologic etiology of the craniofacial abnormality seen?
- Failure of palatine shelves to fuse with each other
- Failure of maxillary prominences to fuse with the medial nasal process
- Failure of maxillary prominences to fuse with the lateral nasal process
- Failure of palatine shelves to fuse with the medial nasal process
- Failure of palatine shelves to fuse with the lateral nasal process