Classification of speech and language profiles in 4-year-old children with cerebral palsy: A prospective preliminary study

Purpose: In this study, the authors proposed and tested a preliminary speech and language classification system for children with cerebral palsy. Method: Speech and language assessment data were collected in a laboratory setting from 34 children with cerebral palsy (CP; 18 male, 16 female) with a mean age of 54 months (SD = 1.8). Measures of interest were vowel area, speech rate, language comprehension scores, and speech intelligibility ratings. Results: Canonical discriminant function analysis showed that 3 functions accounted for 100% of the variance among profile groups, with speech variables accounting for 93% of the variance. Classification agreement varied from 74% to 97% based on 4 different classification paradigms. Conclusions: The results of this study provide preliminary support for the classification of speech and language abilities of children with CP into 4 initial profile groups. Further research is necessary to validate the full classification system.