title: Communication skills in individuals with spastic diplegia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess communication skills in children with spastic diplegia.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study included 20 subjects, 10 preschool children with spastic diplegia and 10 typical matched according to gender, mental age, and socioeconomic status. Assessment procedures were the following: interviews with parents, Stanford - Binet method, Gross Motor Function Classification System, Observing the Communicative Behavior, Vocabulary Test by Peabody Picture, Denver Developmental Screening Test II, MacArthur Development Inventory on Communicative Skills. Statistical analysis was performed using the values of mean, median, minimum and maximum value, and using Student's t-test, Mann-Whitney test, and Paired t-test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Individuals with spastic diplegia, when compared to their peers of the same mental age, presented no significant difference in relation to receptive and expressive vocabulary, fine motor skills, adaptive, personal-social, and language. The most affected area was the gross motor skills in individuals with spastic cerebral palsy. The participation in intervention procedures and the pairing of participants according to mental age may have approximated the performance between groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There was no statistically significant difference in the comparison between groups, showing appropriate communication skills, although the experimental group has not behaved homogeneously.
authors.affiliation: School of Dentistry of Bauru, Universidade de São Paulo, Bauru, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Dionísia Aparecida Cusin
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Lamônica
authors.affiliation: School of Dentistry of Bauru, Universidade de São Paulo, Bauru, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Cora Sofia Takaya
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Paiva
authors.affiliation: School of Dentistry of Bauru, Universidade de São Paulo, Bauru, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Dagma Venturini Marques
authors.initials: DV
authors.lastname: Abramides
authors.affiliation: Clínica Albert Sabin, Bauru, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Jamile Lozano
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Biazon
mesh_terms: D001724:Birth Weight; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D019957:Motor Skills Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012307:Risk Factors