Normative data for oromotor skills of children aged three to six years

Objective: Oral motor assessment should be performed for children, with communication disorders. Children with difficulties in expressive language should be assessed for any motor disorder, which may lead to speech disorder. It is remarkable that, there is limited number of studies performed in our country on the assessment of speech structure of young children. The purpose of this study was to provide clinicians with information about the ages of development of such skills; which can be used in conjunction with normative information already available, to provide a comprehensive description of oromotor functioning and to help decisions concerning treatment planning and differential diagnosis of speech, especially neuromotor, speech disorders. Methods: In this study, we used the oromotor assessment approach, which considers sequenced oral movements and isolated oral movements in context.188 children between the ages of 3.0 and 6.0 years were randomly included in the study. Subjects were excluded if they had any known pre-existing speech and/or language disorder, hearing loss or neurological disease. Results: The results of the study showed a developmental maturation of oromotor abilities up to age of 4.0 years in addition, a wide variation in abilities was noted in children aged 4.0 to 4.5 years. Conclusion: A careful attention should be paid to interpreting poor oromotor abilities observed in young children. Normative data help clinicians in determining the problem and planning the treatment. In addition, sub items of OM assessment could be used to identify areas in which the child is incapable.