Spatial Characteristics of Jaw Movements During Chewing in Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Pilot Study.
Ignatius S B Nip, Erin M Wilson, Lucia Kearney
PMID 28795229WHAT IT FOUND
Children with cerebral palsy and no reported feeding problems used larger jaw movements when chewing, especially for mechanical soft and solid foods.
Chewing speed was not clearly different between groups.
Key findings
01Children with cerebral palsy had greater overall jaw working space than typically developing peers.
02For mechanical soft and solid foods, children with cerebral palsy had higher jaw path distances than peers; for puree, path distance did not differ between groups.
03Chewing speed was not clearly different between groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Small pilot sample. Only children with cerebral palsy who had no reported feeding or swallowing problems were included. Feeding status was based on parent report rather than a formal feeding screen. Tongue movement was not measured. The end of chewing was judged visually rather than with an objective swallowing measure. A few participants did not complete all planned food trials.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat these jaw movement differences as evidence of a clinical feeding disorder or as proof that a treatment works. The study was a small descriptive comparison in children with cerebral palsy who had no reported feeding problems, and no intervention was tested.