Speech and language skills in 4-year old with CP

In my last blog I outlined the results of a study that assessed speech and language performances in 2-year old children with CP. Today’s blog is a continuation of this theme – looking at the speech and language abilities of 4-year olds with CP to find out whether their performances can be classified into groups as well. According to Katherine Hustad, Kristin Gorton and Jimin Lee - the authors of the paper - longitudinal results will help to predict outcomes, and change those outcomes through intervention.

The speech and language classification system employed in the study was developed using existing knowledge as to the nature of CP. Four groups were identified:

1. Children without speech and language problems

2. Children with speech problems, but intact language abilities

3. Children with speech problems and language problems

4. Children who are unable to produce functional speech

Speech and language data from 34 children with CP were collected. The authors measured vowel space, speech rate and language comprehension. They also asked parents to rate the intelligibility of their child’s speech. They then employed statistical procedures to see whether the children’s performances would align with the groups suggested above.

Findings show that children were assigned to the groups mainly based on the results of the speech measures - i.e. speech rate and vowel space. Specifically, it was found that children with speech impairment had a slower speech rate and a smaller vowel space than children without speech problems. Of the two measures speech rate was found to be the stronger indicator for group membership. This makes sense as speech rate performance reflects the integration of all four subsystems (breathing, phonation, velo-pharyngeal function and articulation), whereas vowel space primarily relates to articulation. Language comprehension scores and intelligibility ratings were found to be less predictive of group membership. These findings suggest that speech abilities are the primary determinant for communication profiles in children with CP.