A Comparison of Vitamin D Levels in Chidren with Language and Speech Disorders and Healthy Children in the Turkish Population

ABSTRACT Objective: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between vitamin D [25(OH)] values with the language and speech disorders in children. Material and Methods: A total of 200 children were included in the study, comprising 124 children, with stuttering (n=62), functional language disorder (n=40) and articulation disorder (n=22) as the patient group and a control group of 76 healthy children. Vitamin D levels were examined in blood samples taken from both the patient group and the control group. Results: Serum vitamin D levels were determined as 23.68 ± 10.95 in patients with articulation disorder, 17.82 ± 8.28 in patients with functional language disorder, 23.36 ± 10.01 in patients with stuttering, and 26.01 ± 7.4 in the control group. Serum vitamin D values were found to be statistically significantly (p<0.001) lower in children with functional language disorder than in the healthy control group. It was observed that vitamin D decreased as the severity of the stutter increased. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, there can be considered to be an important connection between vitamin D level and functional language disorder. Nevertheless, further studies are needed to confirm these findings in children with language and speech disorders