Speech-Language Profile Groups in School Aged Children with Cerebral Palsy: Nonverbal Cognition, Receptive Language, Speech Intelligibility, and Motor Function

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To explore the relationship of intelligibility, receptive language, executive functioning, and motor skills to nonverbal cognitive skills among children with cerebral palsy (CP) in different speech-language profile groups.

Method: Twenty-seven children with CP aged 10–12 years old participated in the study. They completed a battery of standard clinical assessments. The relationship of various skillsets with nonverbal cognitive ability was explored using correlational procedures. Additionally, we examined pairwise differences in nonverbal cognitive skills among profile groups. Cohen’s Kappa and Chi-square tests were used to study the consistency of receptive language and nonverbal cognitive performance.

Results: Children who showed better nonverbal cognitive abilities demonstrated better motor, receptive language, and intelligibility skills. Nonverbal cognition was generally consistent with receptive language.

Conclusion: Nonverbal cognitive impairment often co-occurs with language and speech motor impairment among children with CP. Speech-language profile groups are a useful framework for describing both communication and cognitive abilities.

KEYWORDS:

• Cerebral palsy
• nonverbal cognition
• intelligibility
• receptive language
• functional motor abilities
• speech-language profile groups

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the children and families who participated in this research as well as the staff, graduate and undergraduate students in the Wisconsin Intelligibility, Speech, and Communication Lab of the University of Wisconsin–Madison who assisted in data collection and data reduction. In particular, we thank Susan Ellis Weismer and Kimberly Mueller for sharing their insights and expertise on the topic.

Declaration of Interest

This study was funded by grant R01DC009411 from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health. Support was also provided by a core grant to the Waisman Center, U54HD090256, from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH. The authors have no financial relationships relevant to this article to disclose. The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [U54HD090256]; National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders [R01DC009411].