Familial Transmission of Speech and Language Impairment: A Preliminary Investigation

The familial transmission of speech and language disorders was investigated using a community sample of five year old children with speech and/or language impairment and a control group with normal language skills. The results indicated a significantly higher prevalence rate of language-related problems in families of speech and language impaired children than in normal language controls. Girls with speech/language impairments had more affected relatives than boys, suggesting that girls with this type of family history are at a greater risk of developing speech or language related problems. The pattern of transmission of speech and language disorders was also compared with published reports of the family histories of stuttering and reading disabilities, and with reports of cognitive and linguistic deficits among families of autistic individuals. The findings are discussed in relation to the theory of an underlying neurolinguistic diathesis common to these various disabilities.

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Risk factors identification in children with speech disorders: pilot study

CoDAS ◽

10.1590/s2317-17822013000500010 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 25 (5) ◽

pp. 456-462 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Gabriela Martins Duarte Silva ◽

Maria Ines Vieira Couto ◽

Daniela Regina Molini-Avejonas

Keyword(s):

Risk Factors ◽

Language Impairment ◽

Language Disorders ◽

Speech Disorders ◽

Test Results ◽

Speech And Language ◽

History Of ◽

Speech And Language Development ◽

Speech And Language Disorders ◽

The City

PURPOSE: To identify the main risk factors related to children and their parents, associated with speech and language disorders. METHODS: A prospective descriptive study conducted with 170 children and their parents assisted at a school clinic in the period between March 2010 and July 2012. A protocol was developed for this study in order to identify risk factors for language and speech disorders. Data were tabulated and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics by the Χ2 and Student' s t-test . RESULTS: The demographic profile is composed of male children aged between 4 and 5 years old, ethnicity declared by parents as being white, residents of the western region of the city of São Paulo, and whose parents had completed high school. The factors related to family and considered as risks for language impairment were being an only child and having a family history of speech and language disorders. As for the children' s health, prematurity, hospitalization for a long period, and the presence of deleterious oral habits were also considered as risk factors. CONCLUSION: The protocol allows establishing the main risk factors related to children with speech and language disorders. It is suggested that children who present with one or more of the aforementioned risk factors should be regularly monitored for speech and language development and, if necessary, referred for early intervention.

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