Alexandrea White, M.A., CCC-SLP
Doctoral Student
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders
Communication Participation in Young Adults with Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral Palsy (CP) is the most common developmental disability impacting motor skills. Existing literature indicates that most people with CP have a communication disorder, yet there is a lack of research describing communication participation in adolescents and adults with CP. This creates a critical gap in our understanding of how CP and its associated communication disorders impact real world abilities to engage with others. In this study, we sought to measure associations between 1.) participant-reported communication participation 2.) parent-reported communication function, and 3.) objective measures of speech intelligibility. Participants were 24 individuals (18;0-21;11) with CP who had completed a self-report measure of communication participation, the Communication Participation Item Bank (CPIB). Their parents completed subjective ratings of communication function. Results will highlight the relationship between communication function and communication participation. We will also discuss a need for further work examining participant lifestyle factors and communication contexts which might be particularly impactful for participation in this population.
Funding:
This work was supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Grants R01-DC009411 (awarded to Katherine Hustad). Support was also provided by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grant P50HD105353 (awarded to the Waisman Center)