Children with Specific Speech and Language Impairment (Clinics in Developmental Medicine

This book is concerned with children with specific speech or language impairments (e.g. not caused by low intelligence or serious deafness). An analysis is made of their difficulties in understanding and expressing themselves, and their progress while attending a special school is recorded.Background data (relating to pregnancy, birth, early development, family history and social status), and data from assessment at entry to the special school (hearing, sound discrimination, short-term auditory memory, vocabulary, concept development, syntax, articulation and phonology, verbal and non-verbal intelligence, laterality, personal and social behavior, attainments in reading and spelling) are examined in relation to the type and degree of impairment.Subtypes of language impairment are described, and statistical analysis is used to select the best predictors of good, fair, or poor outcome. A follow-up study of 34 ex-pupils aged 18 and over examines their further education, employment, and social adjustment. The longitudinal nature of the study and the relatively large sample (156) of children will make this a valuable book to anyone involved in the therapy or education of children with specific language impairment from pediatricians and child neurologists to speech therapists and developmental psychologists.