Speech Breathing Across Task in Children with Cerebral Palsy as Compared to Typically Developing Children

Abstract

PURPOSE: The present study examined how speech task influenced speech breathing in children with cerebral palsy (CP) as compared to typically developing (TD) peers. There is limited research regarding speech breathing in children with CP. Understanding how the respiratory system supports speech production during various speech tasks can help researchers to construct appropriate models of speech production and clinicians to remediate speech disorders effectively. METHOD: Four children with CP and four age- and sex-matched TD peers completed two speech tasks to simulate differing cognitive-linguistic loads. An extemporaneous speech task represented a higher cognitive load, while an oral reading task represented a lower cognitive load. Respiratory inductive plethysmography was used to collect respiratory kinematic data. Respiratory data were analyzed in a custom, semiautomated MATLAB program. Dependent variables included utterance length, speech rate, sound pressure level, percent vital capacity per syllable (%VC/syll), lung volume initiation (LVI), lung volume termination (LVT), lung volume excursion (LVE), and inspiratory duration. RESULTS: Results are presented as a case series of pairs, each including one participant from the CP group and one participant from the TD group. The majority of children produced longer utterances and faster speech rates during reading than during extemporaneous speech. Intensity was approximately the same across tasks. The majority of children used a higher %VC/syll, higher LVI, higher LVT, and greater LVE in extemporaneous speech than in reading. All children had longer inspiratory durations for the extemporaneous task than for the reading task. CONCLUSION: Speech task affects speech breathing. Children with CP demonstrate different speech breathing patterns from TD children, particularly if children with CP have concomitant speech motor impairment. Keywords: cerebral palsy, speech breathing, speech task