Nordberg Ann, Miniscalco Carmela, Lohmander Anette
Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, Department of Clinical Neuroscience and Rehabilitation, Division of Speech and Language Pathology, University of Gothenburg , Gothenburg , Sweden.
Int J Speech Lang Pathol. 2014 Aug;16(4):386-95. doi: 10.3109/17549507.2014.917440. Epub 2014 Jun 9.
The aim of the present study was to investigate the speech characteristics of school-aged children with cerebral palsy (CP) and speech impairment at various cognitive levels. Nineteen children with a mean age of 11;2 years (9;2-12;9 years) with spastic, dyskinetic, and ataxic CP and speech impairment participated. Phonetic transcription of oral consonants, ratings of hypernasality, and severity of overall dysarthria, together with free field descriptions of respiration, voice quality, and prosody, were performed independently by two speech-language pathologists. The non-verbal cognitive level was also studied. More than half of the children had large problems with the articulation of consonants, and the children with ataxic CP were most affected. The majority was rated as having dysarthria, mostly mild, but hypernasality was rare. Gross motor problems were not significantly associated with the articulation of consonants or the severity of dysarthria, whereas non-verbal cognitive level was. This underlines the importance of taking non-verbal cognitive level into account, when designing individual speech treatment programs for this group of children. Finally, a careful examination of the articulation of consonants is recommended in order to study speech production thoroughly in children with CP.
本研究的目的是调查不同认知水平的学龄期脑瘫（CP）及言语障碍儿童的言语特征。19名平均年龄为11岁2个月（9岁2个月至12岁9个月）的痉挛型、运动障碍型和共济失调型脑瘫及言语障碍儿童参与了研究。两名言语治疗师分别独立进行了口腔辅音的语音转录、鼻音过重评分、整体构音障碍严重程度评估，以及呼吸、嗓音质量和韵律的自由场描述。同时还研究了非言语认知水平。超过半数的儿童在辅音发音方面存在严重问题，其中共济失调型脑瘫儿童受影响最大。大多数儿童被评定为患有构音障碍，大多为轻度，但鼻音过重情况罕见。粗大运动问题与辅音发音或构音障碍严重程度无显著关联，而非言语认知水平则与之相关。这突出了在为这群儿童设计个性化言语治疗方案时考虑非言语认知水平的重要性。最后，建议仔细检查辅音发音，以便全面研究脑瘫儿童的言语产生情况。
