Journal Article

Classification of Speech and Language Profiles in 4-Year-Old Children With Cerebral Palsy: A Prospective Preliminary Study

Gorton, Kristin, Lee, Jimin, Hustad, Katherine C

2010

Overview

Purpose: In this study, the authors proposed and tested a preliminary speech and language classification system for children with cerebral palsy. Method: Speech and language assessment data were collected in a laboratory setting from 34 children with cerebral palsy (CP; 18 male, 16 female) with a mean age of 54 months (SD = 1.8). Measures of interest were vowel area, speech rate, language comprehension scores, and speech intelligibility ratings. Results: Canonical discriminant function analysis showed that 3 functions accounted for 100% of the variance among profile groups, with speech variables accounting for 93% of the variance. Classification agreement varied from 74% to 97% based on 4 different classification paradigms. Conclusions: The results of this study provide preliminary support for the classification of speech and language abilities of children with CP into 4 initial profile groups. Further research is necessary to validate the full classification system.

• Publisher: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA),American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
• Subject: Algorithms / Cerebral palsied children / Cerebral Palsy / Cerebral Palsy - classification / Cerebral Palsy - diagnosis / Child, Preschool / Children / Children & youth / Classification / Cognition & reasoning / Cognitive ability / Cognitive Development / Comprehension / Data collection / Diagnostic Tests / Dysarthria - classification / Dysarthria - diagnosis / Female / Humans / Individualized Instruction / Intelligibility / Language / Language Acquisition / Language assessment / Language awareness / Language classification / Language Development Disorders - classification / Language Development Disorders - diagnosis / Language Tests / Male / Mutual Intelligibility / Phonetics / Pilot Projects / Profiles / Social interaction / Speech / Speech Intelligibility / Speech Perception / Speech Production Measurement / Speech Rate / Speech Skills / Speech Tests / Thinking Skills / Vowels / Young Children