Experimental Tests for Use in Diagnosing Language Disorder

Abstract

The experiments reported in this paper represent a preliminary investigation of the validity of the techniques described previously in the differential diagnosis between specific language disorder and hearing impairment. In all cases their assistance in making such a diagnosis is confirmed, although the Birch and Belmont Sequence Figures and the Critical Flicker Fusion Test are only viable with younger children. The latter also suffers from a considerable overlapping of the test scores of the two groups and its results are only likely to be confirmatory. In addition to the main findings, the experiments are also interesting in that they throw some light on the way in which perceptual processes develop in language disordered children and the possible causative factors which produce this disorder.