Motor difficulties in children with developmental disorders of speech and language

Abstract

The motor hand function of 16 children, aged between 4 and 7 years, with developmental speech and language disorders, was compared with that of 16 control children. The children with developmental speech and language disorders were significantly slower than controls on three out of four motor tasks. They were also more likely than controls to have mixed hand preference although this results was not significant. Children with developmental speech and language disorders should be assessed to ensure that motor deficits are diagnosed and that appropriate support is given.

Characterizing the Motor Skills in Children with Specific Language Impairment

“…Consistent with the previous literature, children with SLI performed significantly different from children with TD on the following tasks: (1) all 3 fine motor tasks of the Manual Dexterity section of the MABC-2 (peg moving, threading lace/nuts and bolts, and drawing trails) [19, 20, 23-25], (2) all 3 gross motor tasks of the Balance section of the MABC-2 (walking forwards/backwards, balancing on one foot/two feet, and hopping) [19, 20, 23-25], and (3) the sequence maintenance of speech items on the VMPAC [10, 30-33]. In contrast, children with SLI did not significantly differ from children with TD on the following tasks: (1) both tasks of the Aiming and Catching section of the MABC-2 (catching a ball with one hand/two hands and throwing a beanbag/ball at a target), (2) the motor control of single and sequenced oral items of the VMPAC, and (3) the motor control of single and sequenced speech items on the VMPAC.…”

“…Relative to children with TD, children with SLI generally require more time to complete fine motor tasks such as drawing trails (drawing a line within the space of two lines), moving pegs, and threading lace [19, 20, 22-25] and exhibit reduced timing precision with bimanual clapping [26]. …”

Non‐specific nature of specific language impairment: a review of the literature with regard to concomitant motor impairments

“…While processing speed may be an explanation of the motor de cits of children with SLI on the speeded tasks reviewed in table 1, additional de cits were seen on non-speeded tasks, as some of the ne motor tasks (Powell and Bishop 1992, Bradford and Dodd 1994, Owen and McKinlay 1997, gross motor (Powell and Bishop 1992) and certainly all the praxis tasks involved no timing constraints. Thus, while it may be that children with SLI have a generalized processing speed de cit, this can not account for all the de cits seen in SLI.…”

“…Typically children with SLI are reported to be impaired relative to their normally developing peers ( Johnston et al 1981, Hughes and Sussman 1983, Bishop and Edmundson 1987, Katz et al 1992, Powell and Bishop 1992, Bradford and Dodd 1994, Owen and McKinlay 1997, Preis et al 1997, although on some repetitive nger tapping tasks performance is unimpaired (Archer andWitelson 1988, Dewey et al 1988), as is the task of placing crosses in boxes (Owen and McKinlay 1997). In contrast, where performance accuracy on a ne motor task has been assessed, children with SLI tend to be unimpaired versus their normally developing peers ( Johnston et al 1981, Preis et al 1997 with the exception of performance on the Ayres (1980) Motor Accuracy Test-Revised (Bradford and Dodd 1994).…”

Motor Issues in Specific Language Impairment: a Window into the Underlying Impairment

“…Her summary of the literature indicated that the motor deficits in SLI were quite extensive and include difficulties with (1) fine motor skill as measured by tasks of finger opposition, bead threading, and peg moving [18][19][20]; (2) gross motor ability as measured by tasks of balance, aiming, catching, and hopping [20,21]; and (3) praxis ability as measured by the production of familiar and unfamiliar gestures and, especially, the production of sequences of familiar gestures [22][23][24].…”