Analysis of Subgroup Distribution and Discriminant Function Analysis in Children with Cerebral Palsy Based on Speech Language Profile Group

Objectives: This study aimed to identify the subgroups distribution of children with cerebral palsy (CP) by using Speech, Language Profile Group (SLPG), and examine discriminant factors that differentiate subgroups. Methods: Eighty-seven children aged 4-16 years with CP participated in the study (spastic 67, dyskinetic 4, ataxic 3, mixed 13). Data was collected from a speech production task (sustained vowel /a/, Assessment of Articulation and Phonology for Children, sentence repetition), language test (receptive vocabulary), and PIQ test (K-WISC-III, K-WIPPSI). Independent variables were maximum phonation time (MPT), intensity, speech rate, intelligibility, receptive vocabulary score, and cognition ability. For the analysis, children with CP were classified into six speech language profile groups; NSMI-LCT (no clinical speech motor involvement and age appropriate language, cognition abilities), NSMI-LCI (no clinical speech motor involvement and impaired language, cognition abilities), SMI-LCT (speech motor impairment and age appropriate language, cognition abilities), SMI-LCI (speech motor impairment and impaired language, cognition abilities), ANAR-LCT (anarthria and age appropriate language, cognition abilities), and ANAR-LCI (anarthria and impaired language, cognition abilities). Results: Descriptive study showed that of all children with CP, the proportion of NSMI-LCT was 11.5%, NSMI-LCI was 8.0%, SMI-LCT was 12.6%, SMI-LCI was 19.5%, ANAR-LCT was 11.5%, and ANAR-LCI was 36.8%. Very strong relationships were noted between SLPG and CFCS, and moderate relationships were noted between SLPG and GMFCS. Canonical discriminant function analysis revealed that the speech intelligibility variable accounted for 85.1%, the speech rate variable was 9.7%, and the language variable was 5.2%. Conclusion: This study suggested that the SLPG classification system helps us to stratify the subgroups for understanding speech, language features in children with CP.