Relationship Between Motor Impairments And Verbal Fluency In Children

The current study aimed to compare the number of errors on the verbal fluency test of children with and without limb motor disorders. The study involved 50 children from 5 to 15 years old; 26 children with similar limb motor disorders and 24 healthy children. Our results showed that motor impairments can affect verbal fluency. In particular, children with motor impairments made fewer errors than healthy children (namely healthy children made more repetitions). These results can be explained by the fact that the development of speech and executive functions, with which verbal fluency is associated, depends on the normal development of motor skills. Thus, we can say that a delay in the development of motor skills affects the speech functions, and the speech activity of children is reduced.