Purpose
To identify possible speech-language disorders in children with Incontinentia Pigmenti (IP), seeking to characterize the role of speech therapy in the evaluation and management of this genetic condition.
Methods
The sample was composed of seven female children diagnosed with IP.
Results
The patients in the sample had a mean age of 6.4 years. Among the main structural features verified in the patients, highlighted the presence of no physiological diastema and hard palate abnormalities, found both in 85.7 % of the sample, in addition to tooth agenesis in 71.4% of cases. As for functional findings, 71.4 % of the sample had abnormal tongue mobility and 57.1%, inappropriate chewing. As for changes in speech, the main findings consisted of phonetic/phonological alterations, verified in 85.7 % of the sample, being the most common phonetic alteration characterized by distortion of alveolar fricative [s], present in 57.1 % of cases. None of the children had abnormal voice and swallowing according to the used protocol. Furthermore, no detectable hearing abnormality was observed according to claim of the family or by observation during the evaluation.
Conclusion
In this sample the most frequent speech-language alterations verified among the patients with IP were mainly related to the stomatognathic system structures and speech.
Speech; language and hearing sciences; Incontinentia pigmenti; Diastema; Tooth; Palate, hard