Estimates of the prevalence of motor speech disorders in children with idiopathic speech delay.
Lawrence D Shriberg, Joan Kwiatkowski, Heather L Mabie
PMID 30987467WHAT IT FOUND
In 415 children recruited for idiopathic speech delay, 17.8% also met research classification criteria for a motor speech disorder.
Most were Speech Motor Delay (12%), with childhood dysarthria 3.4% and childhood apraxia 2.4%.
Key findings
01Among 415 children recruited for idiopathic speech delay, 341 (82.2%) had no motor speech disorder and 17.8% met criteria for one of four motor speech classifications.
02Speech Motor Delay was the most common concurrent motor speech classification, found in 50 participants (12%), compared with 3.4% for childhood dysarthria and 2.4% for childhood apraxia of speech.
03No participant met criteria for concurrent childhood dysarthria and childhood apraxia of speech.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The participants were convenience samples recruited for research in six cities, not a random population sample. The estimates come from 415 children whose motor speech status could be classified; in the original group averages, 6.5% could not be classified. The measures for speech motor delay, dysarthria, and apraxia have only recently become available and need cross-validation. Dysarthria subtype findings are based on only 14 participants and are described as preliminary. The population estimates are derived by multiplying sample prevalence by population estimates of idiopathic speech delay, so they are not direct population measurements. No concurrent dysarthria and apraxia was found in this sample, but the paper says this needs cross-validation.
Declared interests
The authors report no declarations of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the 17.8% estimate as a clinic-ready diagnosis rate. It is an initial research estimate from 415 children recruited for idiopathic speech delay, and the measures for speech motor delay, dysarthria, and apraxia have only recently become available.