What is it about?
Many children show problems with speech development in the early years but for many of these, the problems are transitory and they have no problems with their speech by the time they start school. However, it is difficult to predict who will have transitory problems and who will have persistent problems with their speech. This paper uses data from a large scale population study to identify risk factors for persistent speech disorder. This information can help us to identify which children are likely to resolve their speech problems and which children are likely to have problems which persist.
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Why is it important?
If we know which children are at risk of persistent speech problems when they present in clinic in the early years, we will know which children we should prioritise for intervention early and which children should have a 'watch and wait' approach.
Perspectives
As a clinical speech and language therapist, it was always very difficult to know which children presenting at a young age with delayed or disordered speech patterns would be ok and which would have persisting problems. It was this clinical activity which motivated this work and my hope is that this evidence will be used to inform care pathways for speech and language therapists/pathologists to ensure that the children who need and will benefit from early intervention for their speech, receive it.
Dr Yvonne Wren
University of Bristol
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Prevalence and Predictors of Persistent Speech Sound Disorder at Eight Years Old: Findings From a Population Cohort Study, Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, August 2016, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA),
DOI: 10.1044/2015_jslhr-s-14-0282.
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