Motoric Competence of children with Specific Language Impairment: Variability and Effect of different Variables

Abstract

Background: The heterogeneous clinical presentation of children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) turned the wheel of clinical research work toward verification of the nature of this disorder. Tools that assess language skills among children with language delay of unidentified causes should be overlooked, updated and standardized in order to help in understanding language development in relation to other developmental profile.Patients and Methods: A comparative cross-sectional study carried on in the period between January 2017 and January 2019. Two groups of children were examined: 20 children previously diagnosed by exclusionary and inclusionary criteria as children with SLI and 40 (20 males and 20 females) were normally developed children matching the socio-demographic data of children in the first group. They were subjected to an assessment protocol that included: Standardized Arabic test (Modified Preschool Language Scale -4th edition Arabic form (PLS-4) and assessment of gross and fine motor skills by developmental scale of preschool children (Arabic standardized LAP)).Results: Children with SLI were significantly impaired in the gross-motor developmental quotient as well as their fine-motor developmental quotient. Delayed developmental quotient in the motoric domains were mainly related to late age of presentation of language deficit, first order of birth, increased the gap between language age and chronological age.Conclusion: SLI showed varied degrees of motoric deficit either on the gross aspects or fine one. This deficit was related to some aspects of the disorder.