Cerebral palsy and language : a systematic review

• Autor(a) principal: Gonçalves, Filipa Pais
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/37519
• topic: Cerebral palsy; Language; Gross motor function classification system; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Psicologia

Aim: The aim of this systematic review was to describe the language’s development in children with cerebral palsy and its association with other variables, such as the Cerebral Palsy (CP) subtype and the level of Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS). Method: A systematic review was carried out, following the prisma check-list. The databases consulted were PUBMED, SCOPUS and Web of Science. Articles published in other languages, than English, and articles that used only functional measures to assess expressive language, were excluded. The Systematic Review Protocol was registered in the PROSPERO Register. Results: A total of 723 publications were found in the PUBMED, SCOPUS and WEB of SCIENCE databases. Of these articles, 374 duplicates were excluded. Most of the included studies were developed in European countries and in the last 10 years. There were only 2 case-control studies, which compared tipically developped (TD) children with children with CP, as all the others being observational cohort studies, organized either by CP subtype or by other functional classifications. Regarding the evaluated language subdomains, all studies assessed receptive language and most all of those also assessed expressive language. Within these two main areas, there was great variability in the specific domains evaluated, from semantics, phonological awareness, articulation, lexical development. Conclusion: The data found in this systematic review reinforces the idea proposed by previous researchers that the motor disorders are often accompanied by disturbances in cognition and, in particular, in language. In the studies where the CP children were compared with TD children, although there was significant variability among subdomains, the performance was, in general, poorer. In what concerns the association with the GMFCS level and the CP subtype, all articles showed that as GMFCS level increases, the language impairments also increase and the dyskinetic subtype seemed to be the one with poorer performance in language tasks, results that are in line with previous research.