TD Children Research Articles

Characteristics of Functional Speech Sound Disorders in Korean Children

Purpose: A speech sound disorder (SSD) is defined as the presence of a problem with articulation and phonological processes in a child. This study analyzed the clinical characteristics of Korean patients with functional SSDs without any neuromuscular abnormalities. Methods: The medical records of patients aged 36 to 72 months old who were diagnosed with SSDs were retrospectively reviewed. SSD patients who scored less than 85 in the U-Tap test were divided into two groups according to their receptive language scores on the PRES/SELSI. Results: Sixty-seven percent of patients with language impairment (LI) who were diagnosed with an SSD initially visited the hospital for a delay in language development (n=18, 66.7%). Among children with only an SSD, 26.7% (n=8) of the patients recognized it as a language developmental problem. All SSD patients had substitution errors in the onset of initial syllables (SSD, SSD+LI: 100%; typical development [TD]: 37.5%). Of particular note, SSD children with LI had more omission errors (55.6%) than patients with SSD only (16.7%). SSD patients had higher error rates than TD children in all consonants except for the glottal element (P<0.01). The lower the U-Tap score of SSD patients, the lower their expressive language score (P<0.001). Conclusion: A high percentage of children with SSD initially visited the hospital for the treatment of language development delays. Articulation tests are essential for children who suffer from language delay. Furthermore, since incorrect articulation can lead to delays in expressive language development, early interventions should be considered.

Behavioral feeding assessment in autistic children

The goal of this study is to describe the feeding behavior in children with autism spectrum disorders. Feeding problems may have a significant impact on the child’s growth, development, and opportunities for social and community participation. The MCH-Feeding Scale is an easy method that can be used for evaluation behavioral feeding problems. There is clear difference in the behavior feeding among ASD children and TD children. The MCH-Feeding Scale is an easy method that can be used for evaluation behavioral feeding problems.

Evidence for [Coronal] Underspecification in Typical and Atypical Phonological Development.

The Featurally Underspecified Lexicon (FUL) theory predicts that [coronal] is the language universal default place of articulation for phonemes. This assumption has been consistently supported with adult behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) data; however, this underspecification claim has not been tested in developmental populations. The purpose of this study was to determine whether children demonstrate [coronal] underspecification patterns similar to those of adults. Two English consonants differing in place of articulation, [labial] /b/ and [coronal] /d/, were presented to 24 children (ages 4–6 years) characterized by either a typically developing phonological system (TD) or a phonological disorder (PD). Two syllables, /bɑ/ and /dɑ/, were presented in an ERP oddball paradigm where both syllables served as the standard and deviant stimulus in opposite stimulus sets. Underspecification was examined with three analyses: traditional mean amplitude measurements, cluster-based permutation tests, and single-trial general linear model (GLM) analyses of single-subject data. Contrary to previous adult findings, children with PD demonstrated a large positive mismatch response (PMR) to /bɑ/ while the children with TD exhibited a negative mismatch response (MMN); significant group differences were not observed in the /dɑ/ responses. Moreover, the /bɑ/ deviant ERP response was significantly larger in the TD children than in the children with PD. At the single-subject level, more children demonstrated mismatch responses to /dɑ/ than to /bɑ/, though some children had a /bɑ/ mismatch response and no /dɑ/ mismatch response. While both groups of children demonstrated similar responses to the underspecified /dɑ/, their neural responses to the more specified /bɑ/ varied. These findings are interpreted within a proposed developmental model of phonological underspecification, wherein children with PD are functioning at a developmentally less mature stage of phonological acquisition than their same-aged TD peers. Thus, phonological underspecification is a phenomenon that likely develops over time with experience and exposure to language.

Assessing the effect of playing games on the behavior of ASD and TD children

PurposePrevious researches point that children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show particular interests in computers and other multimedia electronics (Mazurek et al., 2012). Experts in pediatric care contemplate the possibility of exploiting this relationship to inform the interventions among children with Autism. This paper aims to explore how video games can be used to aid the cognitive and social development among children with ASD and typically developing children (TDC).Design/methodology/approachThe study design used was experimental, with 112 children as the main participants. The researchers watched the behaviors of the children through controlled observation as they compared the behaviors with their established models. In this case, the structured models worked as the control group in the experiment. To understand the relationship between the variables: exposure to video games and children's social interactions, the researchers used multiple linear regression analysis, ANOVA and correlation coefficientsFindingsThe predictor model was effective because it accounted for at least 26% of the variation in the dependent variables at a statistical significance level of p < 0.000. Other than the structured models, there were also individual predictors, which also established that when families played games with children, the children tended to calm down their negative behaviors. Hence, family playing games with children can help ease the symptoms of children with ASD and TDC at (t = 2.631, 4.180 and 0.024, p = 0.05). However, the duration of watching or playing the games did not contribute to children negative behavior such as poor school performance, failing to complete homework, playing games past bedtime and feeling agitated or isolated.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is original, and it is first to report the findings of this type of study. This research used unique sample sizes and variables, though within the existing theoretical framework of social science experiments. All borrowed ideas have properly been cited to original owners’ efforts.

Αποκλίσεις στην ανάπτυξη του λεξιλογίου σε παιδιά βρεφικής και πρώιμης προσχολικής ηλικίας

The present research is a first investigation of the development of receptive and expressive vocabulary in Greek-speaking children, aged 0;6-3;6 years, who were characterized as late-talkers (LT) due to a significant deviation of their vocabulary scores from the mean score of their typically-developing peers (TD). The present work is part of a larger project concerning the greek adaptation of a parent questionnaire named Cypriot–Greek Lexical Acquisition Checklist (CYLEX) (Petinou, Hadzigeorgiou &amp; Minaidou, 1999). Within-group comparisons between receptive and expressive vocabulary are drawn for both LT and TD children. In addition, the influence of demographic factors on vocabulary scores, such as gender and parental education level, was examined. The comparison across type of vocabulary revealed that receptive vocabulary develops prior to expressive in both groups, however, late-talkers have a disproportionately low expressive lexical development as compared to receptive. Moreover, the differences in vocabulary scores among LT and TD children are discussed as a function of demographic characteristics.

Motor skill learning in children with and without Developmental Coordination Disorder

The question whether children with DCD have motor learning deficits is difficult to answer based on the current body of knowledge. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of practice on motor skill acquisition, retention and transfer in children with and without DCD using a variety of games in a virtual environment. Performance on a criterion task (Wii ski game) and MABC-2 balance subscore was compared between children with DCD (n=33) and TD children (n=28) following 10weeks of playing active video games. Repeated measures ANOVA was used to compare changes in the two groups. The children with DCD demonstrated lower performance on the criterion task than the TD group (p=0.031). A time by group interaction indicated that the difference in performance on the criterion task became larger over time (p=0.039). No differences were found in retention between groups. Large improvement (Cohen d 1.11) was observed for the children with DCD on the MABC-2 balance subscore. Based on the criterion task results, typically developing children seem more proficient in learning new skills compared to children with DCD. More research is needed to confirm that children with DCD have a problem to transfer skills to other contexts.

Effects of speech and sung speech training on speech prosody production by trilingual children with autism spectrum disorder

Speech prosody can be used to distinguish old (topic) versus new (focus) information and rejecting incorrect alternative statement. It has been reported that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may show abnormal prosody of either monotonic or exaggerated intonation and some of them may fail to mark focus. Though speech and musical training have shown to improve speech production by ASD children, no specific training methods have been proposed to improve the use of speech prosody to mark focus and few studies investigated tonal language speakers. We aim to test (1) whether Cantonese-speaking ASD children fail to mark focus in their native tonal language (2) whether trainings may improve the speech prosody processing (3) whether sung speech training is more effective than speech training? We recruited two training groups of Cantonese-speaking ASD children, a control group of ASD children and TD children. In the training tasks, we focused on improving the mapping between the acoustic cues and information structure. Our pilot results showed that speech and musical training improved the use of prosodic cues such as intensity and f0 in marking focus across various positions. However, ASD children may have difficulties in integrating all the prosodic cues across conditions.

The study of the differences between low-functioning autistic children and typically developing children in the processing of the own-race and other-race faces by the machine learning approach

ObjectiveAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder which affects the developmental trajectory in several behavioral domains, including impairments of social communication and stereotyped behavior. Unlike typically developing children who can successfully obtain the detailed facial information to decode the mental status with ease, autistic children cannot infer instant feelings and thoughts of other people due to their abnormal face processing. In the present study, we tested the other-race face, the own-race strange face and the own-race familiar face as stimuli material to explore whether ASD children would display different face fixation patterns for the different types of face compared to TD children. We used a machine learning approach based on eye tracking data to classify autistic children and TD children. MethodsSeventy-seven low-functioning autistic children and eighty typically developing children were recruited. They were required to watch a series face photos in a random order. According to the coordinate frequency distribution, the K-means clustering algorithm divided the image into 64 Area Of Interest (AOI) and selected the features using the minimal redundancy and maximal relevance (mRMR) algorithm. The Support Vector Machine (SVM) was used to classify to determine whether the scan patterns of different faces can be used to identify ASD, and to evaluate classification models from both accuracy and reliability. ResultsThe results showed that the maximum classification accuracy was 72.50% (AUC = 0.77) when 32 of the 64 features of unfamiliar other-race faces were selected; the maximum classification accuracy was 70.63% (AUC = 0.76) when 18 features of own-race strange faces were selected; the maximum classification accuracy was 78.33% (AUC = 0.84) when 48 features of own-race familiar faces were selected; The classification accuracy of combining three types of faces reached a maximum of 84.17% and AUC = 0.89 when 120 features were selected. ConclusionsThere are some differences between low-functioning autistic children and typically developing children in the processing of the own-race and other-race faces by the machine learning approach, which might be a useful tool for classifying low-functioning autistic children and TD children.

Impairment in Attention Focus During the Posner Cognitive Task in Children With ADHD: An Eye Tracker Study.

Attention is a major cognitive function that allows the individuals to focus selectively on a discrete stimulus while ignoring others. Visual information could be driven endogenously, when the goals or desires are voluntary, or exogenously, in response to salient visual events in the environment. Since subjects with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show heightened distractibility during activities that require significant attentional engagement, we hypothesized that they may be more severely impaired in their ability to perform endogenous tasks than controls. To elicit endogenous and exogenous shifts of attention, we thus used a modified version of Posner's cueing task. We compared oculomotor performance measured by an eye tracker in a group of 31 children with ADHD (mean age = 9.1 ± 1.3 years) and age-, sex-, and IQ-matched typically developing children. Endogenous and exogenous conditions were explored in three distinct visual sub-conditions (valid, invalid, and neutral). We found that children with ADHD showed longer latency during endogenous conditions compared to TD children in invalid sub-conditions. They also performed more errors than controls, during the endogenous task in neutral sub-conditions and during exogenous task in neutral and invalid sub-conditions. Our study suggests that children with ADHD may allocate their attention resource toward the detection of exogenous targets with a deficit in their ability to perform endogenous task. We suggest also that they have a difficulty in the engagement of the inhibitory control system particularly during voluntary saccade performance. This could result from impaired interactions between the ventral and dorsal attention networks as well as in the frontal eye field, although neuroimaging studies are necessary to validate this hypothesis in the ADHD population.

Orientation to and processing of social stimuli under normal and competitive conditions in children with autism spectrum disorder

BackgroundAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopment disorder characterized by early specific impairments in social attention. However, the abnormality of orientation and processing ability in social attention is still unclear in children with ASD. MethodTo address this question, we designed two viewing tasks including a background search task (normal social attention condition) and a paired preference task (competitive social attention condition) to explore the social attention in children with ASD. Eye-tracking technology was applied to measure the ability of ASD children to orient towards and process social stimuli under normal and competitive task conditions. ResultsThe results indicated that the initial orientation ability of social attention in children with ASD was normal, but the subsequent processing ability was impaired under both normal and competitive conditions. Specifically as follows: ASD groups, compared with controls groups, had similar time to first fixation to social stimuli but less fixation duration to social stimuli. More importantly, severity of symptoms in ASD children was negatively correlated with the fixation duration to social stimuli. Furthermore, both ASD and TD children preferred to orient and process stimuli related to circumscribed interests (CI), but ASD children had difficulty distinguishing between social and non-CI stimuli under competitive condition. ConclusionThese findings suggest that the abnormality in subsequent processing of social stimuli could serve as a key role in social attention impairments, which may provide a new perspective for early identification and intervention training.

Narrative Abilities of Adults' With Down Syndrome as a Window to Their Morphosyntactic, Socio-Cognitive, and Prosodic Abilities.

Down syndrome (DS) is the most common developmental disorder characterized by mild to moderate intellectual disability. Several studies have reported poor language and prosodic skills and contradictory results regarding individuals’ with DS socio-cognitive skills, whereas most of them have focused on children with DS. The present study attempts to explore adults’ with DS language, socio-cognitive and prosodic abilities via the use of story-retellings. Twenty adults with DS and two groups of TD children, one matched to their expressive vocabulary (TD-EVT) and the other matched to their non-verbal mental age (TD-RCPM), took part in the present study. Participants listened to a story while viewing a wordless picture PowerPoint presentation on a computer screen, and then, they were instructed to retell the story while viewing the pictures for a second time. Each participant listened to two stories, one with “lively” and one with “flat” prosody. Results revealed that adults’ with DS performance was comparable with the one presented by the TD-RCPM group, whereas the TD-EVT group performed significantly better in almost all variables. Individuals’ with DS re-narrations, however, contained significantly less complement clauses and internal state terms (related or not related to Theory of Mind–ToM) compared to the re-narrations of both control groups. In contrast, the group with DS performed similarly to both control groups in comprehension questions related to main characters’ internal state terms and significantly better compared to the TD-RCPM group in questions related to ToM. In terms of prosody, all three groups performed significantly better on story structure and comprehension questions when prosody was “lively” compared “flat” prosody. DS group’s re-narrations did not contain enough internal state terms, not due to their inability in recognizing them, but due to their poor morphosyntactic abilities, which did not allow them to find the proper means to express the main characters’ internal states. Prosody facilitated participants with DS in the comprehension and re-narration. This suggests that intervention programs based on prosody could support the language skills of adults with DS.

Profiles of academic achievement and attention in children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder

BackgroundAcademic outcomes for autistic individuals are heterogeneous, but the reasons for this are unknown. Attention is known to predict learning in typical development, but there is less evidence about this relationship in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), even though attention is reported as atypical in this group. AimsTo investigate reading and maths achievement profiles for children with and without an ASD, focusing on the role of attention in these profiles and to enable a better understanding of individual differences. MethodsReading, maths and attention abilities of 22 autistic children (6−16 years) and 59 TD children (6–11 years) were measured using standardised assessments. ResultsA hierarchical cluster analysis that included all children (N = 81) revealed three distinct transdiagnostic subgroups, characterised by children with good, average, and poorer divided attention and academic achievement respectively. Children with poorer attention and achievement displayed relative weaknesses in maths, while children with average or above-average attention and achievement showed no such weakness. ConclusionsThe findings provide a novel insight into the relationship between attention and achievement and understanding individual differences in ASD and typical development.

Different associations between intelligence and social cognition inchildren with and without autism spectrum disorders.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by impaired social cognition and communication. In addition to social impairment, individuals with ASD often have intellectual disability. Intelligence is known to influence the phenotypic presentation of ASD. Nevertheless, the relation between intelligence and social reciprocity in people with ASD remains unclear, especially in childhood. To elucidate this relation, we analyzed 56 typically developing children (35 male, 21 female, aged 60–91 months) and 46 children with ASD (35 male, 11 female, aged 60–98 months) from university and affiliated hospitals. Their cognitive function was evaluated using the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children. Their social cognition was assessed using the Social Responsiveness Scale. We used linear regression models to ascertain whether the associations between intelligence and social cognition of typically developing children and children with ASD are significantly different. Among the children with ASD, scores on the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children correlated significantly with social cognition, indicating that higher intelligence is associated with better social cognition. For typically developing children, however, no significant correlation was found. One explanation might be that children with ASD fully use general intelligence for successful learning in social cognition, although extensive use of intelligence might not be necessary for TD children. Alternatively, autistic impairment in social cognition can be compensated by intelligence despite a persistent deficit in social cognition. In either case, when using the SRS as a quantitative phenotype measure for ASD, the influence of intelligence must be considered.

VLDL-specific increases of fatty acids in autism spectrum disorder correlate with social interaction.

BackgroundAbnormalities of lipid metabolism contributing to the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) pathogenesis have been suggested, but the mechanisms are not fully understood. We aimed to characterize the lipid metabolism in ASD and to explore a biomarker for clinical evaluation.MethodsAn age-matched case-control study was designed. Lipidomics was conducted using the plasma samples from 30 children with ASD compared to 30 typical developmental control (TD) children. Large-scale lipoprotein analyses were also conducted using the serum samples from 152 children with ASD compared to 122 TD children. Data comparing ASD to TD subjects were evaluated using univariate (Mann-Whitney test) and multivariate analyses (conditional logistic regression analysis) for main analyses using cofounders (diagnosis, sex, age, height, weight, and BMI), Spearman rank correlation coefficient, and discriminant analyses.FindingsForty-eight significant metabolites involved in lipid biosynthesis and metabolism, oxidative stress, and synaptic function were identified in the plasma of ASD children by lipidomics. Among these, increased fatty acids (FAs), such as omega-3 (n-3) and omega-6 (n-6), showed correlations with clinical social interaction score and ASD diagnosis. Specific reductions of very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) and apoprotein B (APOB) in serum of ASD children also were found by large-scale lipoprotein analysis. VLDL-specific reduction in ASD was correlated with APOB, indicating VLDL-specific dyslipidaemia associated with APOB in ASD children.InterpretationOur results demonstrated that the increases in FAs correlated positively with social interaction are due to VLDL-specific degradation, providing novel insights into the lipid metabolism underlying ASD pathophysiology.FundingThis study was supported mainly by MEXT, Japan.

Impact of mainstream classroom setting on attention of children with autism spectrum disorder: an eye-tracking study

It has long been reported that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit attention difficulties while learning. They tend to focus on irrelevant information and can easily be distracted. As a result, they are often confined to a one-to-one teaching environment, with fewer distractions and social interactions than would be present in a mainstream educational setting. In recent years, inclusive mainstream schools have been growing in popularity due to government policies on equality rights. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate attentional patterns of children with ASD in mainstream schools. This study aims to explore the attentional behaviors of children with ASD in a virtual reality simulated classroom. We analyzed four eye-gaze behaviors and performance scores of 45 children: children with ASD (ASD n = 20) and typically developing children (TD n = 25) when performing attention tasks. The gaze behaviors included time to first fixate (TTFF), first fixation duration (FFD), average fixation duration (AFD) and the sum of fixation count (SFC) on fourteen areas of interest (AOIs) in the classroom. Our results showed that children with ASD exhibit similar gaze behaviors to TD children, but with significantly lower performance scores and SFC on the target AOI. These findings showed that classroom settings can influence attentional patterns and the academic performance of children with ASD. Further studies are needed on different modalities for supporting the attention of children with ASD in a mainstream setting.

Children with ASD use joint attention and linguistic skill in pronoun development

ABSTRACT Producing pronouns involves linguistic and social-cognitive knowledge because children must learn words and understand pronouns’ changing referents. This study examined pronoun production longitudinally in young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n = 15), whose social-cognition might impair pronoun use, and in typically developing (TD; n = 18) children. Modeling the effect of joint attention (JA; a social-cognitive factor) and a name bias (NB; a linguistic factor) revealed a positive relation between NB and second- and third-person pronouns for all children and a positive relation between JA and those pronouns in just the ASD group. Social-cognitive and linguistic processes affected the ability of children with ASD to use pronouns; TD children’s pronouns were related to linguistic skill and unaffected by JA.

The status of chemical elements in the blood plasma of children with autism spectrum disorder in Tunisia: a case-control study.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a group of neurodevelopmental disorders defined by a deficit in social interactions and the presence of restricted and stereotypical behaviors or interests. The etiologies of autism remain mostly unknown. Many genetic and environmental factors have been suspected. Among these environmental factors, exposure to several chemical elements has been previously studied. The purpose of this study was to compare the levels of trace elements in the blood plasma of children with ASD with typically developed children (TDC). The participants in this study consisted of 89 children with ASD (14 girls and 74 boys) and 70 TD children (29 girls and 41 boys). The levels of 33 chemical elements have been analyzed by inductively coupled plasma spectrometry (ICP-MS). We detected significant differences in the levels of eight elements between the two groups, among which there were three rare earth elements (REEs): Eu, Pr, and Sc (p= 0.000, p= 0.023, and p< 0.001 respectively); four heavy metals: Bi, Tl, Ti, and V (p= 0.004, p< 0.001, p= 0.001, and p = 0.001 respectively); and one essential element: Cu (p= 0.043). Children with ASD had higher levels of Er, Pr, Sc, Bi, Tl, Ti, and V, and lower levels of Cu in comparison with the TD group. The children exposed to passive smoking had lower levels of lead (Pb) compared with children without exposure (p= 0.018). Four elements (Cr, Er, Dy, and Pr) were negatively correlated to the severity of ASD. The level of Cu was significantly associated with autistic children's behavior (p= 0.014). These results suggest that children with ASD might have abnormal plasma levels of certain chemical elements (including Er, Pr, Sc, Bi, Tl, Ti, and V, and Cu), and some of these elements might be associated with certain clinical features.

Shared Reading Extratextual Talk With Children With Autism Who Have Spontaneous Speech

Shared reading is a developmentally appropriate practice that supports children’s emergent literacy and language development. Participation in shared reading, however, may be compromised for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) due to social-communication difficulties inherent to the disorder. The primary aim of this study was to explore the extent to which children with ASD who have spontaneous verbal language engage in shared reading with caregivers. A total of 37 caregivers and their children ( n = 17 ASD; n = 20 with typical development [TD]) read nine books representing three different genres (i.e., familiar, non-fiction, fiction). Analyses revealed no differences between the groups in the quantity of adult questions asked, frequency of child-initiated comments or questions, and overall levels of child responsiveness to adults. Children with ASD showed greater responsiveness to adult questions during familiar books compared with either non-fiction or fiction genres, in contrast to TD children wherein responsiveness did not differ across book genres. The authors conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings for designing shared reading interventions for children with ASD who have spontaneous verbal language.

Understanding attention, memory and social biases in fragile X syndrome: Going below the surface with a multi-method approach

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is characterised by atypical social behaviours, such as gaze aversion. However, it remains unclear whether, or if so how, these behaviours affect cognitive processing and influence memory. We asked children with FXS (N = 16) and typically developing children (TD; N = 46) to explore naturalistic scenes containing social and non-social salient items unrelated to their task at hand (searching for a simple target object). We also assessed children’s memory for target locations. We complemented behavioural responses with eye-tracking data for the subset of participants who managed to comply with calibration and the demands of the experimental testing session (6 children with FXS and 43 TD children). Children with FXS performed well at the experimental task, and showed similar accuracy and speed in locating targets in natural scenes to children of equivalent verbal abilities. They also learned target locations over blocks, but their memory of target locations was not as precise as that of comparison children. In addition, children with FXS initially directed few first looks to salient social items within the scenes, but these looks increased over blocks. Like TD children, children with FXS also dwelled gaze upon social items while recalling target locations from memory. Individual differences in everyday social characteristics also related to gaze and behavioural measures. In conclusion, experimental approaches can highlight cognitive underpinnings of atypical social behaviour in FXS, pinpointing both similarities and differences to TD individuals.

An Unsupervised Data-Driven Model to Classify Gait Patterns in Children with Cerebral Palsy.

Ankle and foot orthoses are commonly prescribed to children with cerebral palsy (CP). It is unclear whether 3D gait analysis (3DGA) provides sufficient and reliable information for clinicians to be consistent when prescribing orthoses. Data-driven modeling can probe such questions by revealing non-intuitive relationships between variables such as 3DGA parameters and gait outcomes of orthoses use. The purpose of this study was to (1) develop a data-driven model to classify children with CP according to their gait biomechanics and (2) identify relationships between orthotics types and gait patterns. 3DGA data were acquired from walking trials of 25 typically developed children and 98 children with CP with additional prescribed orthoses. An unsupervised self-organizing map followed by k-means clustering was developed to group different gait patterns based on children’s 3DGA. Model inputs were gait variable scores (GVSs) extracted from the gait profile score, measuring root mean square differences from TD children’s gait cycle. The model identified five pathological gait patterns with statistical differences in GVSs. Only 43% of children improved their gait pattern when wearing an orthosis. Orthotics prescriptions were variable even in children with similar gait patterns. This study suggests that quantitative data-driven approaches may provide more clarity and specificity to support orthotics prescription.