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Psychosocial outcomes at 15 years of children with a preschool history of speech-language impairment

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Carole Kaplan

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Abstract

Background: Evidence suggests there is a heightened risk of psychiatric disorder in children with speech-language impairments. However, not all forms of language impairment are strongly associated with psychosocial difficulty, and some psychiatric disorders (e.g., attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)) are more prevalent than others in language-impaired populations. The present study assessed the psychosocial adjustment in adolescence of young people with history of speech-language impairment, and investigated specific relationships between language deficits and psychiatric disorders. Methods: Seventy-one young people (aged 15-16 years) with a preschool history of speech-language impairment were assessed using a psychiatric interview (K-SADS) supplemented by questionnaires probing social encounters and parental reports of behaviour and attention. Their psycho-social adjustment was compared with that of a cross-sectional control group of age-matched controls. Results: Overall the rate of psychiatric disorder was low in the clinical sample and children whose language delay had resolved by 5.5 years had a good outcome. For those whose language difficulties persisted through the school years, there was a raised incidence of attention and social difficulties. These difficulties were partially independent and associated with different language profiles. The group with attention problems showed a profile of specific expressive language difficulties; the group with social difficulties had receptive and expressive language difficulties; and the group with both attention and social difficulties was of low IQ with global language difficulties. Conclusions: Amongst children with speech-language delays at 5.5 years, those with more severe and persistent language difficulties and low nonverbal IQ are at higher risk of psychiatric morbidity in adolescence. © 2006 The Authors Journal compilation © 2006 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Snowling MJ, Bishop DVM, Stothard SE, Chipchase B, Kaplan C

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines

Year: 2006

Volume: 47

Issue: 8

Pages: 759-765

ISSN (print): 0021-9630

ISSN (electronic): 1469-7610

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2006.01631.x

DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2006.01631.x

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