Associate Professor of Speech Pathology, 58893All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysuru, India.
Research Associate, Department of Audiology, 58893All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysuru, India.
Percept Mot Skills. 2022 Feb;129(1):33-46. doi: 10.1177/00315125211056421. Epub 2021 Nov 8.
In the context of language descriptions, the terms oral and verbal praxis refer to volitional movements for performing oral gestures and movements for speech. These movements involve programming articulators and rapid sequences of muscle firings that are required for speech sound productions. A growing body of research has highlighted the links between oral motor kinematics and language production skills in both typically developing (TD) children and children with developmental language disorders, including Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Yet, there have been limited attempts to assess the link between non-linguistic and linguistic development. In the present study, we investigated oral and verbal praxis behaviors in children with SLI. Fifteen children with SLI formed a clinical group and 15 children with typical development who were matched to the clinical group for chronological age, gender, and socio-economic status formed the TD group. We assessed participants in both groups for their language abilities with age-appropriate standardized language tests. To investigate oral and verbal praxis behaviors, we administered the Assessment Protocol for Oral Motor, Oral Praxis and Verbal Praxis Skills to the two groups. We used the non-parametric Mann-Whitney test to compare the two groups with respect to oral and verbal praxis measures; and we found a significant difference between isolated and sequential movements in the oral praxis section in two age subgroups of these groups ( ≤ .05). Spearman's correlations revealed a strong correlation between core language scores and sequential movements in the younger children with SLI and in TD children. These results showed co-morbidity between SLI and poor oral motor skills, suggesting that SLI is not just a language disorder, but a group of co-morbid conditions that include oral motor and verbal praxis difficulties.
在语言描述的背景下，术语“口腔”和“言语”实践是指执行口腔手势和言语运动的意志运动。这些运动涉及到对发音器官的编程和产生言语声音所需的肌肉快速序列收缩。越来越多的研究强调了口腔运动学和语言产生技能之间的联系，包括在典型发育儿童和发育性语言障碍儿童中，包括特定语言障碍（SLI）。然而，评估非语言和语言发展之间的联系的尝试有限。在本研究中，我们调查了 SLI 儿童的口腔和言语实践行为。15 名 SLI 儿童组成临床组，15 名具有典型发育且与临床组在年龄、性别和社会经济地位方面相匹配的儿童组成 TD 组。我们使用适合年龄的标准化语言测试评估两组参与者的语言能力。为了研究口腔和言语实践行为，我们对两组参与者进行了口腔运动、口腔实践和言语实践技能评估。我们使用非参数 Mann-Whitney U 检验比较两组的口腔和言语实践测量值；我们发现这两组的口腔实践部分的孤立运动和连续运动之间存在显著差异（≤.05）。Spearman 相关分析显示，在年龄较小的 SLI 儿童和 TD 儿童中，核心语言分数与连续运动之间存在很强的相关性。这些结果表明 SLI 与口腔运动技能差之间存在共病，这表明 SLI 不仅是一种语言障碍，而是一组包括口腔运动和言语实践困难在内的共病条件。
