Effects of the Castillo-Morales stimulating plate on speech development of children with Down's syndrome. A retrospective study.

Within the scope of a follow-up examination, the speech development of 2 different groups of children with trisomy 21 was compared. The patient group (n = 20) was treated with a Castillo-Morales stimulating plate in early childhood (average treatment time = 10.8 months, average age at follow-up examination: 55 months). The control group (average age 47.4 months) comprised 18 children with Down's syndrome who had ceased stimulating plate treatment after one month or had received no treatment because, although treatment proved in retrospect to be indicated, parents were not adequately informed. Two specially developed standardized forms were used, one to document parents' concepts of speech development, and the other to record relevant medical data. Other factors evaluated included motoricitiy and hearing ability, which also have an effect on speech. Follow-up examination revealed that the patient group had better results concerning oral motoricity than the control group. Within the patient group, mouth and tongue position improved in 75% of the patients compared with the first examination. Despite a poorer average general somatic development and hearing ability, the patient group had a faster speech development than the control group with respect to 1-, 2- and multi-word sentences. We therefore believe that treatment with the Castillo-Morales stimulating plate has a positive effect at least on initial speech development due to long-term improvement of peripheral conditions in the orofacial region. Thus, not only improved oral motoricity but also earlier speech development can be interpreted as a positive social factor.