Cleft lip and palate (CLP) is a risk indicator to middle ear alterations, which may damage the development of auditory abilities such as attention that is essential to learn new skills, oral and written communication. Studies on attention process with CLP population are recent and poorly explored in the specific literature. Thus, this study aims to contribute with new subsidies in the field as it investigates the performance of children with CLP in Sustained Auditory Attention Ability Test (SAAAT). METHODS Comparison of SAAAT performance between children with CLP and children without it. Prospective study. RESULTS ANOVA was used as variance analysis model with two factors to study the variables such as group and gender. The CLP group showed an average of 2.5 units higher than the control group. This difference is between 0.7 and 4.4 with 95% certain. CONCLUSIONS Children with cleft lip and palate had poorer performance on SAAAT when compared to those without such craniofacial anomaly, considering attention reduction only.