Speech Language Impairment

Bishop, D. V. M., Chipchase, Barry, Kaplan, Carole, Snowling, Margaret J., and Stothard, Susan E. (2006). Psychosocial Outcomes At 15 Years of Children With A Preeschool History of Speech-language Impairment. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 47, (8), 759-765.

The researchers claim that from various studies done on children with speech language impairments, there is an increased risk of psychological disorders. This study was designed to determine the affects of early intervention on the psychological development of adolescents with speech language impairments. The sample pulled seventy-one of eighty-seven students with speech language impairments from a previous study done at the pre-school level. These adolescents were put through psychiatric and cognitive evaluations. The overall prognoses is that children with speech language impairments in the pre-school years do not necessarily show a significant difference in psychological development. However, the study does show that the children that continue to have difficulty with speech and language throughout the elementary and middle school levels do show an increase in psychosocial disorders.

Brown, Barbara., Camarata, Mary N., Camarata, Stephen M., Leonard, Laurence B., and Pawlowska, Monica. (2008). The Acquisition of Tense and Agreement Morphemes by Children With Specific Language Impairment During Intervention: Phase 3. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 51, (1) 120-125.

The researchers’ investigation proved that children with speech language impairments showed improvements on target morphemes that mark tense and agreement after a one-month period. Although they did show gains, many of the subjects did not reach mastery levels during the study. The suggestions for the failure to reach mastery levels are that the intervention strategy was not designed well or the subjects in the study were too young. One month after the study was over, the improvements were maintained. The sample of children used in the study was small, thirty-three, and the ages were from three years to four years eight months. The treatment conditions stressed third person singular, auxiliaries, and general language stimulation. The children in the general language stimulation group did not show remarkable improvement, though they, too, showed gradual improvement.

Gillam, Ronald B., & Gillam, Sandra L. (2006). Making Evidence-Based Decisions About Child Language Intervention In Schools. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services In Schools, 37, (4), 304-315.

The researchers suggest speech language pathologist should move from basing their clinical decisions on child language interventions in schools on the information they were give in their graduate programs to basing the decisions on evidence-based practices. In order to make decisions, the speech language pathologist needs to stay informed on research discoveries. The researchers suggest a seven-step process: one – create a general or specific clinical question to ensure relevant evidence is collected, two – find external evidence that pertains to the question to find studies that answer the question, three – determine the level of evidence and critically evaluate the study to ensure their decision is based on the best evidence available, four – evaluate the internal evidence related to the student-parent factors for a weighing system that best fits the student, five – evaluate the internal evidence related to clinician-agency factors for a system that best fits the setting they work in, six – make a decision by integrating the evidence to avoid conflict between the interested parties, and seven – evaluate the outcomes of their decision to ensure the implemented program is effective. The researchers provide an example of these seven steps and feel SLPs who use recent research will be the best equipped to help their students.

Gillon, Gail T. (2005). Phonological Awareness: Evidence To Influence Assessment and Intervention Practices. Language, Speech, & Hearing Services In Schools, 36, (4), 281-284.

According to Gillon’s research, improvement in spoken language only in children with speech language impairments does not prove success in treatment of the children. To be successful, children with speech language impairments must also show improvement in written language. Gillon suggests the use of phonological awareness based programs to increase overall improvement with children with speech language impairments as assessment and intervention practices. These practices will address reading and spelling difficulties, which have been linked to poor phonological representations of words. Gillon’s claim is based on scientific research presented in a forum involving New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

McCabe, Paul C., Meller, Paul J. (2004). The Relationship Between Language and Social Competence: How Language Impairment Affects Social Growth. Psychology In The Schools, 41, (3), 313-321.

Because social success depends greatly on language, the researchers of this study suggest children with speech language impairments often seem socially incompetent. Because language development is often an interaction between peers, children with speech language impairments often do not receive the feedback needed for language development. This leads to the child’s difficulty in forming peer bonds. In turn, the inability of these children to interact properly on an emotional level may lead to the lack of emotional knowledge, or gauging the emotions of others, which may cause a lack of acceptance from their peers. The researchers sampled thirty-five children from three years ten months to five years seven months in age to prove how socially competent the children with speech language impairments. Through various testing methods the researchers gained an understanding that children with speech language impairments may have difficulty developing socially competent behaviors.