Household size is associated with unintelligible speech in children who have intellectual disabilities: A South African study

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine whether four socioeconomic factors, namely caregiver age, caregiver education, family income and/or household size were related to the presence of motor delays or unintelligible speech in South African children with intellectual disabilities. Methods: Caregivers of children with intellectual disabilities completed a biographical questionnaire regarding their home environments. Other items on the questionnaire queried whether their children experienced co-occurring developmental impairments of motor delays or unintelligible speech. Results: A total of 145 caregivers were included in the analyses. Two logistic regressions were run with the set of four socioeconomic factors as predictors, and motor delays and intelligible speech as the outcome variables. Household size was a statistically significant predictor of whether children evidenced intelligible speech. Conclusion: Children living in dwellings with more people were less likely to have intelligible speech. The processes through which large household size might influence children’s language are discussed.