Relationship between chewing skills and speech intelligibility in korean children with spastic cerebral palsy

The present study investigated the relationship between chewing skills and speech intelligibility of nonsense one-syllable utterances in Korean children aged 3-8 with spastic cerebral palsy. Twenty-five children with spastic cerebral palsy participated in the study. Chewing skills were examined using the biting and chewing portions of the Pre-Speech Assessment Scale (PSAS), which provides a format with guidelines and scoring procedures for the assessment of normal and abnormal components of pre-speech functioning. Oral movements were observed while chewing food of different consistencies. Speech intelligibility was examined via perceptual analysis of consonant-vowel (CV) syllable production. The study showed (1) a significant and positive correlation between normal chewing scores and speech intelligibility scores, and (2) a significant and negative correlation between abnormal chewing scores and speech intelligibility scores. The current study is consistent with previous studies that found a significant relationship between non-speech oral movements and speech acts. The results of the present study are discussed from the point of view of motor controls of speech and non-speech behavior, and their clinical applications are suggested.