Importance of Family Characteristics for Psychomotor Development of Children with Developmental Dysphasia

Abstract

Difficulties in sensory processing can be a risk for the development of language, speech, as well as cognitive and motor abilities in children. The aim of the research was to investigate the relationship between the sensory and psychomotor abilities of children with developmental dysphasia and the socio-demographic characteristics of their primary families. The consequences of different developmental difficulties affect not only the child, but the parents as well. Gender, education, number of children, and birth order are some of the characteristics which can be significant for diagnozing and treatment of the developmental difficulties caused by the developmental dysphasia. The sample consisted of 47 parents of preschool children with developmental dysphasia diagnose, which were included in logopedic treatment. The Modified Sensory Profile and the questionnaire about socio-demografic characteristics of the family were used in the research. The data were processed by descriptive statistics, t test for independent samples, and ANOVA. The results showed that there were statistically significant differences on the psychomotor dimensions of sensory processing relative to the educational level of parents, but also the order of birth and the number of children. The data indicate that there is a great need for a wider spectrum of opportunities for intervention and support for the parents of children with developmental dysphasia by offering them different training sessions, as well as by including them in the physical activities which focus on the coordination abilities and fine motorics, especially when it comes to the preschool children.

Keywords

• motor abilities
• learning difficulties
• parents
• sedentary lifestyle.