Investigating the social communication skills of young children with dyskinetic cerebral palsy

Download Poster

Many children with cerebral palsy have difficulties with speech, with language and with understanding what is said to them. Speech and language therapists have observed that some children have additional problems with social communication, including using eye contact and eye gaze to give messages. Understanding why this should be difficult for some children is important: many people with cerebral palsy rely on their eyes to convey their feelings, wants and needs. This study will start to investigate how to better understand the development of these valuable social communication skills: by looking at ways of describing the difficulties, and at the other learning skills to which they might relate. Some new assessments will be trialled, and further work is planned to share any useful insights with other speech and language therapists working with this group of children.