Sensory integration dysfunction affects efficacy of speech therapy on children with functional articulation disorders

Li-Chen Tung,^1,# Chin-Kai Lin,^2,# Ching-Lin Hsieh,^3,4 Ching-Chi Chen,¹ Chin-Tsan Huang,¹ Chun-Hou Wang<sup>5,6

1</sup>Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, ²Program of Early Intervention, Department of Early Childhood Education, National Taichung University of Education, Taichung, ³School of Occupational Therapy, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, ⁴Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, ⁵School of Physical Therapy, College of Medical Science and Technology, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, ⁶Physical Therapy Room, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan

^#These authors contributed equally

Background: Articulation disorders in young children are due to defects occurring at a certain stage in sensory and motor development. Some children with functional articulation disorders may also have sensory integration dysfunction (SID). We hypothesized that speech therapy would be less efficacious in children with SID than in those without SID. Hence, the purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of speech therapy in two groups of children with functional articulation disorders: those without and those with SID.
Method: A total of 30 young children with functional articulation disorders were divided into two groups, the no-SID group (15 children) and the SID group (15 children). The number of pronunciation mistakes was evaluated before and after speech therapy.
Results: There were no statistically significant differences in age, sex, sibling order, education of parents, and pretest number of mistakes in pronunciation between the two groups (P > 0.05). The mean and standard deviation in the pre- and posttest number of mistakes in pronunciation were 10.5 ± 3.2 and 3.3 ± 3.3 in the no-SID group, and 10.1 ± 2.9 and 6.9 ± 3.5 in the SID group, respectively. Results showed great changes after speech therapy treatment (F = 70.393; P > 0.001) and interaction between the pre/post speech therapy treatment and groups (F = 11.119; P = 0.002).
Conclusions: Speech therapy can improve the articulation performance of children who have functional articulation disorders whether or not they have SID, but it results in significantly greater improvement in children without SID. SID may affect the treatment efficiency of speech therapy in young children with articulation disorders.

Keywords: children, functional articulation disorders, sensory integration dysfunction, speech therapy, efficacy