Interventions for Pre-School Children with Co-Occurring Phonological Speech Sound Disorder and Expressive Language Difficulties

Lucy Rodgers,Michael T Clarke,Rachel Rees,Sam Harding

doi:10.7565/ssp.v4.5767

Abstract

Background: Pre-school children with co-occurring phonological speech sound disorder and expressive language difficulties are more likely to have ongoing communication and literacy needs compared to children with these difficulties in isolation. However, to date there has been no systematic or scoping review of the literature specific to interventions for this frequently seen and high-risk group. Aims: The objective of this paper is to provide a rigorous and detailed protocol for a scoping review of interventions, which target both phonological speech sound disorder and expressive language difficulties in pre-school children with primary speech, language and communication needs. The protocol includes details on the development of a search strategy, as well as the trial of an extraction tool. Methods/Design: Included studies must aim to concurrently improve both speech production and expressive language. Children within included studies must be aged between 2:0 and 5:11 years and have communication needs with no known cause. In accordance with the Joanna Briggs institute scoping review methods guidelines, an initial search of the Ovid Emcare and Ovid Medline databases was conducted. Following this a final search strategy for these databases were produced. A draft extraction form was developed by the first author; this was then trialed by two authors on four articles each. Discussion: Following the systematic development of an initial search strategy and extraction form, a scoping review of this topic can take place. The development of a rigorous scoping review protocol is essential in enhancing the transparency and reliability of the subsequent review. A pre-developed search strategy and trialing of an extraction form is a fundamental part of this process.

Highlights

Pre-school children with co-occurring phonological speech sound disorder and expressive language difficulties are more likely to have ongoing communication and literacy needs compared to children with these difficulties in isolation
The aim of this paper is to provide a detailed protocol for the scoping review of interventions for pre-school children who present with co-occurring speech and language difficulties
Pre-school children with features of a Developmental Language Disorder (FDLD) present with language difficulties in the absence of an associated condition (Bishop et al, 2017). They are at risk of their language difficulties persisting into their later childhood years and beyond (Bishop et al, 2017). Such language difficulties are often viewed as heterogenous in nature, where an individual child may present with a combination of impairments relating to verbal learning/memory, discourse, pragmatics, word finding, understanding and use of words, grammar and sentence building; for an overview see RCSLT (2020)..Speech Sound Disorder (SSD) is an umbrella term used to describe difficulties with producing the individual speech sounds within words and sentences (Dodd, 2014)

Summary

Introduction

Pre-school children with co-occurring phonological speech sound disorder and expressive language difficulties are more likely to have ongoing communication and literacy needs compared to children with these difficulties in isolation. They are at risk of their language difficulties persisting into their later childhood years and beyond (Bishop et al, 2017) Such language difficulties are often viewed as heterogenous in nature, where an individual child may present with a combination of impairments relating to verbal learning/memory, discourse, pragmatics, word finding, understanding and use of words (semantics), grammar (morphology) and sentence building (syntax); for an overview see RCSLT (2020)..Speech Sound Disorder (SSD) is an umbrella term used to describe difficulties with producing the individual speech sounds within words and sentences (Dodd, 2014). The term ‘expressive language features of developmental language disorder’ (eFDLD) will be used in the remainder of this paper when describing pre-school children who present with features of Developmental Language Disorder which relate to expressive language

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