Motor speech impairment, activity, and participation in children with cerebral palsy

Abstract

The present study used a population-based sample of children with cerebral palsy (CP) to estimate the prevalence of motor speech impairment and its association with activity and participation. A sample of 79 Victorian children aged 4 years 11 months to 6 years 5 months was recruited through the Victorian CP Register. The presence of motor speech impairment was recorded using the Viking Speech Scale (VSS). Activity and participation outcomes included speech intelligibility (the National Technical Institute for the Deaf rating scale, NTID), the Functional Communication Classification System (FCCS) and Communication Function Classification System (CFCS). A parent completed rating scale was used to examine the association between motor speech impairment and participation. Ninety per cent (71/79) of children demonstrated a motor speech impairment. Strong associations were found between the VSS and NTID (< .001), CFCS (< .001), and FCCS levels (<.001). VSS levels III–IV were significantly associated with restrictions in home, school, and community-based participation as perceived by parents. Although some diversity in activity and participation outcomes was observed within specific VSS levels, the results of this study suggested that children with mild motor speech impairments are more likely to demonstrate superior activity and participation outcomes compared to children with moderate or severe deficits.

Keywords::

• Cerebral palsy
• motor speech disorders
• activity and participation

Note

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all the families who participated in this study. We kindly thank Sue Reid (Manager of the VCPR) and the following departments at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, for their generous assistance in recruiting families: Developmental Medicine, Orthopaedics, and the Victorian Paediatric Rehabilitation Service. This project was funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Postgraduate Scholarship (#607448) and a Speech Pathology Australia Nadia Verrall Research Grant. The following authors were funded by NHMRC: AM (Career Development Award #607315); SR (Practitioner Fellowship #1041892); and FM (Population Health Capacity Building Grant #436914 and Early Career Fellowship #1037449). Support was also received from the Victorian Government's Operational Infrastructure Support Program.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Notes

1. Defined by Eadie, Yorkston, Klasner, Dudgeon, Deitz, Baylor, et al. (2006) as “taking part in life situations where knowledge, information, ideas, or feelings are exchanged” (p. 309).