Communication skills in individuals with spastic diplegia

Abstract

Purpose: To assess communication skills in children with spastic diplegia. Methods : The study included 20 subjects, 10 preschool children with spastic diplegia and 10 typical matched according to gender, mental age, and socioeconomic status. Assessment procedures were the following: interviews with parents, Stanford - Binet method, Gross Motor Function Classification System, Observing the Communicative Behavior, Vocabulary Test by Peabody Picture, Denver Developmental Screening Test II, MacArthur Development Inventory on Communicative Skills. Statistical analysis was performed using the values of mean, median, minimum and maximum value, and using Student's t-test, Mann-Whitney test, and Paired t-test. Results : Individuals with spastic diplegia, when compared to their peers of the same mental age, presented no significant difference in relation to receptive and expressive vocabulary, fine motor skills, adaptive, personal-social, and language. The most affected area was the gross motor skills in individuals with spastic cerebral palsy. The participation in intervention procedures and the pairing of participants according to mental age may have approximated the performance between groups. Conclusion : There was no statistically significant difference in the comparison between groups, showing appropriate communication skills, although the experimental group has not behaved homogeneously.

Upper Extremity Impairments and Activities in Children with Bilateral Cerebral Palsy

“…The four extremities are affected in diparetic CP, in which the lower extremities are more involved (28). In another study, fine motor skills of cases with diparetic CP were shown as not different from those of their peers (29). However, in this study, it was observed that children with diparetic CP were inadequate in their fine motor skills compared to the healthy peers.…”

Assessment of the communication difficulties of children and ado lescents with cerebral palsy using Communication Function Classification System

“…Wysoki poziom umiejętności komunikacyjnych osób z postacią jednostronną potwierdzają również Himmelmann, Lindh i Hidecker [20]. Porównując dzieci z diparezą spastyczną z ich zdrowymi rówieśnikami nie stwierdzono pomiędzy nimi różnic w porozumiewaniu się, co świadczy o ich wysokich kompetencjach komunikacyjnych [23]. Natomiast w przypadku badanych z tertraparezą spastyczną, aż 81,4% z nich to osoby będące niestałym lub rzadko skutecznym nadawcą i odbiorcą nawet dla znanych partnerów (CFCS V).…”