Sensorimotor function in preschool-aged children with expressive language disorder

• Children with mild ELD are less successful than controls in functional motor tests.
• Notably more children with mild ELD have definite or borderline motor difficulties.
• Girls with mild ELD have greater IS than controls in functional motor tests.
• Boys with mild ELD make more mistakes in sensory and motor tests than controls.

AimThe aim of the study was to evaluate functional motor performance and haptic object recognition in 5-year-old children with mild expressive language disorder (ELD) in comparison with age- and gender-matched healthy children.MethodsThe subjects were classified by speech-language pathologist using The Reynell Developmental Language Scales III and Boehm Test of Basic Concepts: Preschool as children with mild ELD (n = 29, incl. 23 boys and 6 girls) and children with typical language development as controls (n = 29, incl. 23 boys and 6 girls). The children were examined for manual dexterity, ball skills, static and dynamic balance by Movement-ABC, haptic object recognition (HOR), hand-grip strength (HGS) and vertical jumping performance.ResultsChildren with mild ELD demonstrated significantly higher scores (i.e., inferior performance) in all subtests of M-ABC (all p values <0.05), in haptic object recognition (p < 0.01) and vertical jumping height (p < 0.05) compared to controls. However, no statistically significant differences (p > 0.05) emerged from HGS. Boys with mild ELD demonstrated higher results in impairment score (p < 0.001), ball skills (p < 0.01) and balance (p < 0.01) of M-ABC, as well as in HOR (p < 0.05). Girls with mild ELD showed higher impairment score (p < 0.05) with lower percentile (p < 0.05) in M-ABC, indicating inferior motor performance, and lower HGS for the non-dominant hand (p < 0.05). Seven out of 29 (24.1%) children with mild ELD had definite or borderline motor difficulties, while only one child in control group (3.4%) demonstrated borderline motor difficulties.ConclusionsChildren with mild expressive language disorder do not perform as well as controls in tests of functional motor skills, but their results in tests demanding maximal muscle force generation are in level with typically developing children. Boys and girls with mild ELD demonstrated higher impairment scores in M-ABC, indicating the need to follow their overall development more closely.