# Communication Development in Children with Cerebral Palsy

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON · 2020 · $626,104

## Abstract

Project Summary
 Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common cause of severe motor impairment in children, affecting 3 per
1000 in the US and internationally. Motor impairment is the primary defining feature, but co-occurring
developmental disabilities are frequent and lead to a complex array of problems. Approximately 60% of
children with CP have some type of communication disorder, which may include dysarthria and its associated
speech intelligibility deficits; language and/or cognitive impairments; or a combination of both speech and
language/cognitive problems. Advancing our understanding of communication abilities is a priority area in CP
research. However, heterogeneity among children with CP makes the study of speech, language, and
communication and its development difficult, necessitating the use of prospective longitudinal methods where
each child is his/her own control to allow for direct connection between early speech-language markers and
later development. We began such work 10 years ago, following over 90 children with CP who were as young
as 2 years at the onset of the study. The long-term goal of our research is to generate theoretically driven,
empirically validated longitudinal models of speech and language development in CP that can be used to
predict outcomes, test interventions, and guide treatment decisions. Over the past two funding cycles, we have
developed a classification model of speech-language profile groups among children with CP, which we are
using to predict outcomes. Results suggest that children in more advanced profile groups at 2 years of age
remain in more advanced profile groups in later childhood. Also, those who are producing speech by 2 years
make faster gains in intelligibility and utterance length and have better speech production later than those who
begin speaking at older ages. We are also developing speech and language growth curves and using data to
create models of profile group membership based on development across childhood. Data indicate that
children with CP are still changing through 10 years of age and have not yet reached developmental endpoints.
Progress is currently limited by two key barriers, addressed in this application: 1.) longitudinal speech and
language development data prior to 2 years of age have never been gathered for children with CP. These data
are necessary to refine our ability to predict speech-language outcomes beginning at the earliest possible age
and establish prognostic indicators that can inform intervention decision-making; and 2.) longitudinal data
beyond 10 years of age have never been gathered, but are needed to quantify rates and limits of change in
speech-language variables through the full course of development so that we can develop predictive models of
age-based endpoints that guide interventions and improve outcomes. Toward this end, we will collect new
longitudinal data on our existing cohort of children with CP to the age of 15 years, and we will collect new
...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9933880
- **Project number:** 5R01DC009411-13
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
- **Principal Investigator:** Katherine C Hustad
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $626,104
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2008-06-01 → 2023-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9933880

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9933880, Communication Development in Children with Cerebral Palsy (5R01DC009411-13). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9933880. Licensed CC0.

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