Formal Speech-Language Screening Not Shown to Help Children

Abstract

Confirming its first report from 2006, in this issue of Pediatrics , the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) continues to find no evidence to suggest that speech-language screening improves speech and language outcomes.1,2 This persistent lack of evidence accumulated across nearly a decade reveals that unlike simple laboratory screening for lead toxicity or dyslipidemia, child development represents a drastically more complex phenomenon that may present insurmountable obstacles to the process of simple screening. Child development and screening have conflicting definitions. Child development is defined as the basic science of pediatrics3; it fundamentally distinguishes pediatrics from all other areas of medicine, and developmental disorders are among the most prevalent chronic medical conditions in daily pediatric practice.4 Screening, in contrast, is defined as a process to be carried out by parents (rather than trained professionals), briefly and rapidly, for the purpose of separating children into those probably not in need of further evaluation from those who would probably benefit from more in-depth assessment.5 Different screening tests that have … Address correspondence to Robert G. Voigt, MD, FAAP, Meyer Center for Developmental Pediatrics, Texas Children’s Hospital, 8080 North Stadium Dr, Houston, TX 77054. E-mail: rgvoigt{at}bcm.edu