Speech and language disorders in patients with cerebral palsy [Serebral palsi·li· hastalarda di·l ve konuşma bozukluklari]

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the speech and language disorders of patients with cerebral palsy. A total of 48 patients including 23 girls and 25 boys with spastic cerebral palsy were included in the study. Thirteen (%27) of the patients were hemiplegic, 25 (%52) were diplegic, and 10 (%21) had total body involvement. Speech characteristics including respiration, oral motor functions, eating and chewing solid foods, articulation, phonology, prosody, intelligibility level of all patients were evaluated by a Speech Evaluation Form developed by Speech and Language Disorders Education, Application, and Research Center of Anadolu University. No speech production was observed in 29,2% of all cases; disturbance of oral motor functions and phonology in 66,7%, intelligibility by others in 60,4%, eating solid foods and chewing in 54,2%, articulation in 50%, prosody in 47,9%, intelligibility by family members in 37,5%, and respiration in 33,3%. The rate of patients having disturbances in all the speech parameters except intelligibility by family members (p=0.142) were significantly higher in total body involvement patients compared to both hemiplegic (p<0.05 for all), and diplegics (p<0.05 for all). In 87,5% of all cases disturbance in at least one parameter of speech was observed. All these findings show the importance of comprehensive rehabilitation including speech therapy in patients with cerebral palsy.