Effect of Treatment on Oral Motor for Children with Spastic Cerebral Palsy

Abstract

The purpose of the report was to find out the effects of oral motor treatment on the functional practice of the articulator and articulation for children with spastic cerebral palsy in pre-and-post treatment. Two children with spastic cerebral palsy at the age of six in average were practiced with a speech therapist each for 20minutes by 40 times. Vowels /a/, /i/, /u/, /e/, /o/ assessed the percentage of correct vowels and formant and nine syllables, which combined with bilabial plosives /p, p’, p h / and vowels(/a/, /i/, /u/) assessed the percentage of correct consonants and the voice onset time(VOT) of bilabial plosives. These were recorded on Multi-Speech, evaluated auditory-perceptually, and analyzed by acoustic parameters. As a result, the functional practice of the articulator was improved in post-treatment compared with pre-treatment for the subjects. The percentage of correct vowels and consonants were improved in post-treatment compared with pre-treatment. The formant of vowel /i/(F1) and formant of vowels /u, o/(F2) were decreased and the formant of vowel /i/(F2) was increased in pot-treatment for the subjects. The vowel space area(VSA) was larger in post-treatment for the subjects. The VOT of tensed sounds were decreased in post-treatment compared with pre-treatment. As control of lips, tongue, jaw and articulation of vowels and consonants improved through oral motor treatment for children with spastic cerebral palsy, the consistently intervention of treatment and the development of individualized treatment programs according to degree of disability and ability of articulation are needed for children with spastic cerebral palsy.