The Language of Bengali Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Neurolinguistic Study

Abstract

Linguistic understanding, verbal expression of language, meaning inference, and perception are all hampered by Neuro-developmental Disorders (NDD). Individual processes are greatly impacted by defects in nervous system development; illustrated by this descriptive cross-sectional doctoral research on children with neurodevelopmental disorders has been carried out in tertiary-level hospitals from January 2017 to December 2022 in Bangladesh. The various NDDs (Autism Spectrum Disorder -ASD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - ADHD, Intellectual Development Disorder - IDD, and Cerebral Palsy -CP) have been observed in children. Face-to-face interviews and semi-structured questionnaires have been used to collect data.

In all children having ASD, ADHD, IDD, and CP, all of them have found different levels of receptive/perceptive language development disorder (50.7%, 97.0%, 65.3%, and 84.0%), expressive language disorder (64.0%, 98.7%, 81.3%, and 98.7%), social / sociolinguistic development disorder (88.0%, 100.0%, 89.3%, and 78.7%), and behavioral disorder (80.0%, 97.0%, 64.0%, and 62.7%) respectively. Children with IDD and ADHD have phonemic awareness disorder (77.3%, and 85.1%). Metalinguistic competence disorder was observed in all children. For children with CP, the radiological finding of anatomical location was a hyperintense or hypointense area found in the frontal lobe (Broca's area) and basal ganglia (56%), temporal lobe (Wernicke's area) and basal ganglia (20%), and frontal, temporal and basal ganglia. A pathological finding was detected in the MRI report that had a noticeable relation (p<0.05) with the language area of the brain. However, children with IDD and ADHD have no organic abnormality detected pathologically in MRI of the brain.

According to research, children with CP have significantly higher rates of both receptive language developmental disorder and expressive language development disorder than children with ASD. The receptive, expressive, and sociolinguistic developmental disorder was noticeable higher in children with ADHD than in children with ASD. Receptive language development disorder and sociolinguistic development disorder were observed to be significantly higher in children with ADHD than in children with CP. However, it was found similar in children with CP, ADHD, and IDD. As for the sociolinguistic development disorder, it has been found common in children with CP and ASD but has been found more frequent in children with IDD than in children with CP.

It discovers that children with NDD frequently have language development disorders, demonstrating the interrelationship between the brain, body, and mind in the neurolinguistic process. The research proposes insightful strategies aimed at reducing the deleterious effects of language disorders and suggests early diagnosis and intervention with linguistic assessment and speech therapy. This is the first clinical doctoral research on this topic in Bangladesh.