Language Disorders In Children Research Articles

Early Maternal Prenatal Cannabis Use and Child Developmental Delays

Maternal prenatal cannabis use is associated with adverse neonatal health effects, yet little is known about its association with child developmental outcomes. To evaluate associations between maternal prenatal cannabis use in early pregnancy and child early developmental delays. This cohort study included 119 976 children born to 106 240 unique individuals between January 2015 and December 2019 and followed up to aged 5.5 years or younger (through December 31, 2021) at Kaiser Permanente Northern California. Individuals were screened for prenatal cannabis use via self-report and urine toxicology at entrance into prenatal care (approximately 8- to 10-weeks' gestation). Data were analyzed from February 2023 to March 2024. Maternal prenatal cannabis use defined as any use (self-reported or by urine toxicology testing) and use frequency. Early developmental delays (speech and language disorders, motor delays, global delays) in children up to age 5.5 years defined by International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Ninth Revision and Tenth Revision diagnoses codes ascertained from electronic health records. In this cohort of 119 976 pregnancies among 106 240 unique pregnant individuals, there were 29 543 Hispanic pregnancies (24.6%), 6567 non-Hispanic Black pregnancies (5.5%), 46 823 non-Hispanic White pregnancies (39.0%), 12 837 pregnancies (10.7%) to individuals aged 24 years or younger, and 10 365 pregnancies (8.6%) to individuals insured by Medicaid. Maternal prenatal cannabis use was documented for 6778 pregnancies (5.6%). Daily maternal prenatal cannabis use was reported for 618 pregnancies (0.5%), weekly for 722 pregnancies (0.6%), and monthly or less for 1617 pregnancies (1.3%). No association was observed between maternal prenatal cannabis use and child speech and language disorders (HR, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.84-1.03), global developmental delays (HR, 1.04; 95% CI, 0.68-1.59), or motor delays (HR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.69-1.06). No association was detected between the frequency of maternal prenatal cannabis use and child early developmental delays. In this cohort study, maternal prenatal cannabis use was not associated with an increased risk of child early developmental delays. Future research is needed to assess different patterns of cannabis use throughout pregnancy. Given the association between maternal prenatal cannabis use and other adverse outcomes, pregnant individuals should be educated on those risks.

The Use of Language Sample Analysis to Differentiate Developmental Language Disorder From Typical Language in Bilingual Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Language sample analysis (LSA) is a commonly recommended method of assessment for bilingual children. This systematic review and meta-analysis provides a comprehensive overview of the literature on the use of LSA to differentiate between developmental language disorder (DLD) and typical language (TL) in bilingual children. We conducted a search of several large electronic databases along with forward and backward searches and applied abstract and full-text screening procedures to identify all relevant studies. We then estimated standardized mean differences, representing the ability of LSA to differentiate between DLD and TL, using multilevel model and subgroup and moderator analyses to identify characteristics of LSA that may be associated with differences in effect size magnitude. We conducted assessments of publication bias and risk of bias by examining quality indicators for each study. The search yielded 35 articles that met the inclusion criteria. Participants ranged in age from 2;0 (years;months) to 11;9, with over 40 languages represented. Across studies, the pooled standardized mean difference indicated that children with DLD performed 0.78 SD lower on LSA measures than those with TL. Measures of morphosyntactic accuracy exhibited the largest pooled effect size. Elicitation method, language of task, and age were not associated with differences in effect size. Results of this study provide evidence of the clinical utility of LSA in differentiating between DLD and TL in bilingual children. Further research is needed to examine classification accuracy as well as task characteristics that may improve its diagnostic utility.

THE PSYCHOEDUCATION OF LANGUAGE DISORDERS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD FOR PARENTS AND TEACHERS AT ECC DEWI SARTIKA MOJOKERTO

Introduction: Based on an initial survey conducted among parents, prospective parents, and educators at ECC Dewi Sartika, Mojokerto, it was found that 19% of people did not know about language disorders in early childhood. In addition, 29.3% of respondents did not know about the impact and urgency of handling language disorders in children. A total of 36.2% of respondents did not know about the symptoms or indications of language disorders in children, and as many as 58.6% of respondents did not know about how to treat children with language disorders, especially in early childhood. The purpose of giving psychoeducation is increasing knowledge and attitude of those directly involved in the child's growth and development process, so they can find out an overview of the development of language and speech in children. Methods: The psychoeducation program is in the form of an interactive talk show conducted online through one of the video conference platforms. The target participants consisted of 8 teachers, 30 parents or caregivers, and 10 other parties who are directly or indirectly involved in the care and guidance of early childhood. Participants were given a pretest and post test to measure their knowledge and attitude towards language disorders in early childhood. The results obtained will be analyzed using a t-test with the Jamovi version 2.2.5 application. Results: The difference in the mean score is 16,842 (CI95 = [∞, 14,135]), the delivery of promotive interventions in the form of psychoeducation has a significant effect on increasing knowledge and attitudes towards language disorders in early childhood (t(48) = 10,495, p=<.001 , Cohen's d=1,702). Conclusion: This psychoeducation program is able to increase participants' understanding and attitude towards of language disorders in early childhood.

Predictive Measures in Child Language Development: The Role of Familial History and Early Expressive Vocabulary.

Prediction of developmental language disorder in children under 3 years of age is challenging. Among early risk factors, research has focused on having a positive familial history (FH+) for language or literacy problems and on late language emergence, that is, late-talker (LT) status. The interaction between these two risk factors and their cumulative effect is still debated. Here, we (a) investigate the effect of FH+ on 24-month language development, (b) test for cumulative effects of FH+ status and early language delay on 36-month language outcomes, and (c) disentangle the direct and indirect effects of familial history (FH) on the language outcome. One hundred eighty-five Italian children were followed up longitudinally between 24 and 36 months of age (64 FH+ and 121 FH-) through parental questionnaires and direct child assessment. At the age of 24 months, the FH+ group showed worse expressive vocabulary and higher prevalence of LT. At the age of 36 months, main effects of LT and FH were identified on lexical and phonological performances, respectively. Interestingly, significant interaction effects were identified on expressive vocabulary and phonological processing. Path analysis highlights that FH had a direct effect on later measures of phonology, whereas its effect on 36-month lexical abilities was indirect, via measures of expressive vocabulary at 24 months. The study suggests specific predictive roles of FH and LT status on language development. Interestingly, FH+ seems to represent an additive risk for LT children. The use of cumulative risk measures is confirmed as a powerful approach to identify those children with the highest probability of developing persistent language difficulties. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.26790580.

Identifying data elements and key features to design a telerehabilitation system for speech and language disorders in children with hearing impairments in Iran: A cross-sectional study.

Designing and implementing telerehabilitation systems would require the identification of data elements to meet disabled people's needs. An in-depth study on the identification and validation of data elements can help design and implement telerehabilitation systems successfully. Therefore, this study aimed to identify and validate data elements to design a telerehabilitation system for the speech and language disorders of hearing-impaired children in Iran. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in three steps including literature review, focused group discussion, and Delphi technique implementation to extract and validate data elements. In the first step, the literature on electronic databases was reviewed to extract the data elements of telerehabilitation systems, and nine studies were selected based on the inclusion criteria. In the second step, a focused group discussion was held to review and classify the extracted data elements. Finally, the Delphi technique was employed to validate the drafted data elements. In total, 352 data elements were extracted from the literature review. Finally, 102 data elements in 10 categories (Demographic and Clinical information of the disabled person, Clinical history, Demographic information of the provider, Customization of exercises, Reminders, Online and offline counseling, and training, Reporting, Key features of the system, Evaluation of the progress of the disabled person) were classified and validated by experts as essential data elements to design a telerehabilitation system for the speech and language disorders of hearing-impaired children. The necessary data elements were proposed as the foundations to design a telerehabilitation system for the speech and language disorders of hearing-impaired children. These data elements help design and implement telerehabilitation systems successfully so that such systems can easily be provided for children with hearing disabilities.

Speech sound error patterns may signal language disorder in Swedish preschool children with autism.

Within cohorts of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) there is considerable variation in terms of language ability. In the past, it was believed that children with ASD either had delayed articulation and phonology skills or excelled in those areas compared to other language domains. Very little is known about speech sound ability in relation to language ability and non-verbal ability in Swedish preschool children with ASD. The current study aimed to describe language variation in a group of 4-6-year-old children with ASD, focusing on in-depth analyses of speech sound error patterns with and without non-phonological language disorder and concomitant non-verbal delays. We examined and analysed the speech sound skills (including consonant inventory, percentage of correct consonants and speech sound error patterns) in relation to receptive language skills in a sample of preschool children who had screened positive for ASD in a population-based screening at 2.5 years of age. Seventy-three children diagnosed with ASD participated and were divided into subgroups based on their receptive language (i.e., non-phonological language) and non-verbal abilities. The subgroup division revealed that 29 children (40%) had language delay/disorder without concurrent non-verbal general cognitive delay (ALD), 27 children (37%) had language delay/disorder with non-verbal general cognitive delay (AGD), and 17 children (23%) had language and non-verbal abilities within the normal range (ALN). Results revealed that children with ALD and children with AGD both had atypical speech sound error patterns significantly more often than the children with ALN. This study showed that many children who had screened positive for ASD before age 3 years - with or without non-verbal general cognitive delays - had deficits in language as well as in speech sound ability. However, individual differences were considerable. Our results point to speech sound error patterns as a potential clinical marker for language problems (disorder/delay) in preschool children with ASD. What is already known on the subject Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have deficits in social communication, restricted interests and repetitive behaviour. They show very considerable variation in both receptive and expressive language abilities. Previously, articulation and phonology were viewed as either delayed in children with ASD or superior compared with other (non-phonological) language domains. What this paper adds to existing knowledge Children with ASD and language disorders also have problems with speech sound error patterns. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? About 75% of children with ASD experience language delays/disorders, as well as speech sound problems, related to speech sound error patterns. Understanding/acknowledging these phonological patterns and their implications can help in the diagnosis and intervention of speech sound disorders in children with ASD. Direct intervention targeting phonology might lead to language gains, but more research is needed.

Dynamic assessment of phonological awareness in monolingual and bilingual French-speaking children

ABSTRACT Dynamic assessment (DA) is a tool used to assess children’s learning potential. Research on English-speaking children indicates that DA effectively diagnoses language disorders in monolingual and bilingual children. However, few DAs have been developed for French-speaking children. This study aimed to examine the validity of a dynamic phonological awareness task for differentiating French-speaking monolingual and bilingual children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). Thirty-eight monolingual and bilingual children, aged 4–8 years, 23 with typical development (TD) and 15 with DLD, participated in the study. They performed a dynamic phoneme segmentation task, in which graduated cues were provided. Children were also administered a nonword repetition (NWR) task, and a modifiability scale, in which the examiner rated the child’s responsivity during the task. Statistical analyses examined what factors influenced dynamic task performance, and calculated the sensitivity and specificity of the tests. Results indicated that four factors emerged as significant in a mixed-effects logistic regression model: age, diagnostic group (TD vs. DLD), modifiability, and the number of phonemes in the target word. Older children who had TD and higher modifiability scores had better segmentation skills than other children. Words with fewer phonemes were also easier to segment than words with greater numbers of phonemes. The dynamic task had good sensitivity in the identification of DLD but less good specificity. Our findings indicate that a dynamic task of phonological awareness has the potential to be used as a diagnostic tool to differentiate TD and DLD.

Keterlambatan Berbahasa dalam Aspek Fonologi pada Anak Usia 5 Tahun

The purpose of this study was to find out the causes of language delays in phonological aspects of five-year-old subjects. The problem that underlies this research is related to language disorders. Language disorder in children's speech development is one type of communication disorder which is indicated for children who experience disturbances in the process of using any symbols in language. In this study, it discusses speech sound pronunciation disorders experienced by 5 year old children, especially in the phonological aspect. The method used is qualitative with note-taking techniques and collecting data sources through interviews, subjects are given light questions so they are easy to understand.

Evaluating the association between developmental language disorder and depressive symptoms in preschool children

This study aims to investigate the association between developmental language disorder (DLD) and depressive symptoms in preschool-aged children, building upon previous research that has demonstrated emotional difficulties in children with DLD. Forty-one children with DLD or children at risk for DLD (DLD group) and 41 children with typical language development (TLD) were included in this study. Language development was evaluated using the TEDIL test which is a Turkish adaptation of the Test of Early Language Development-3. Auto acoustic Emissions Testing and Immittance-Metric Assessment were used to exclude children with hearing impairment. Developmental delays were excluded by Denver Developmental Screening Test II. Mothers filled out the Sociodemographic Data Form and the Child Depressive Symptoms Assessment Scale. The results demonstrate that children in DLD group scored significantly higher on the Child Depressive Symptoms Assessment Scale, manifesting increased levels of aggression, separation anxiety, impulsivity, hyperactivity, and encountering greater social adaptation difficulties and deterioration in cognitive processes than TLD. Multivariate regression analysis suggests that increased impulsivity and hyperactivity, alongside social and cognitive challenges, are predictors of DLD. The study concludes that depressive symptoms are more prevalent in children in DLD group than in their typically developing counterparts. These findings underscore the necessity for targeted psychiatric and pedagogical interventions, as well as individualized educational programs that cater to the socio-emotional and cognitive needs of children with DLD.

The Phenomenon of Language Disorder in Children With Autism

Language is a means of communicating between people, but there are those who are unlucky so that they have language disorders, language disorders are phenomena that occur in a person both in receiving and expressing language in communication, not only parents can be affected by language disorders, children can also receive language disorders because the causes of language disorders vary. This study examines language disorders in children with autism using qualitative research methods, as well as descriptive analysis. The aim is to determine the phenomenon of language disorders in children with autism both in terms of receptive and expressive.

A longitudinal study of Turkish-Dutch children’s language mixing in single-language settings: Language status, language proficiency, cognitive control and developmental language disorder

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of language status, language proficiency, cognitive control and Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) in bilingual Turkish-Dutch children’s language mixing in single-language settings. We investigated these factors over time following 31 children (20 with typical development, 11 with DLD), from the age of 5 or 6 years until they were 7 or 8 years old. Children more often mix the majority-societal language (Dutch) into the minority-heritage language (Turkish) than the other way around. Higher proficiency in Dutch, lower proficiency in Turkish, and having DLD are linked to more mixing in the Turkish setting. Effects of cognitive control on children’s language mixing are limited. Linguistic factors at a child-external and child-internal level impact on children’s mixing in single-language settings, and are more important than domain-general cognitive control. Increasing language proficiency in Turkish could explain why children mix less as they grow older.

Identifying early language predictors: A replication of Gasparini et al. (2023) confirming applicability in a general population cohort

AbstractBackgroundIdentifying language disorders earlier can help children receive the support needed to improve developmental outcomes and quality of life. Despite the prevalence and impacts of persistent language disorder, there are surprisingly no robust predictor tools available. This makes it difficult for researchers to recruit young children into early intervention trials, which in turn impedes advances in providing effective early interventions to children who need it.AimsTo validate externally a predictor set of six variables previously identified to be predictive of language at 11 years of age, using data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) birth cohort. Also, to examine whether additional LSAC variables arose as predictive of language outcome.Methods & ProceduresA total of 5107 children were recruited to LSAC with developmental measures collected from 0 to 3 years. At 11–12 years, children completed the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, 4th Edition, Recalling Sentences subtest. We used SuperLearner to estimate the accuracy of six previously identified parent‐reported variables from ages 2–3 years in predicting low language (sentence recall score ≥ 1.5 SD below the mean) at 11–12 years. Random forests were used to identify any additional variables predictive of language outcome.Outcomes & ResultsComplete data were available for 523 participants (52.20% girls), 27 (5.16%) of whom had a low language score. The six predictors yielded fair accuracy: 78% sensitivity (95% confidence interval (CI) = [58, 91]) and 71% specificity (95% CI = [67, 75]). These predictors relate to sentence complexity, vocabulary and behaviour. The random forests analysis identified similar predictors.Conclusions & ImplicationsWe identified an ultra‐short set of variables that predicts 11–12‐year language outcome with ‘fair’ accuracy. In one of few replication studies of this scale in the field, these methods have now been conducted across two population‐based cohorts, with consistent results. An imminent practical implication of these findings is using these predictors to aid recruitment into early language intervention studies. Future research can continue to refine the accuracy of early predictors to work towards earlier identification in a clinical context.WHAT THIS PAPER ADDSWhat is already known on the subject There are no robust predictor sets of child language disorder despite its prevalence and far‐reaching impacts. A previous study identified six variables collected at age 2–3 years that predicted 11–12‐year language with 75% sensitivity and 81% specificity, which warranted replication in a separate cohort.What this study adds to the existing knowledge We used machine learning methods to identify a set of six questions asked at age 2–3 years with ≥ 71% sensitivity and specificity for predicting low language outcome at 11–12 years, now showing consistent results across two large‐scale population‐based cohort studies.What are the potential or clinical implications of this work? This predictor set is more accurate than existing feasible methods and can be translated into a low‐resource and time‐efficient recruitment tool for early language intervention studies, leading to improved clinical service provision for young children likely to have persisting language difficulties.

Arabic Language Disorder in Children with Dysarthria: A Case Study of Students In SDIT Mutiara Hati Jambi

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan masalah gangguan bahasa Arab pada anak usia 7 tahun dengan disartria di SDIT Mutiara Hati Jambi yang diberi nama MAR. Analisis kerentanan pada cacat bunyi pada surat-surat pendek Al-Qur'an dan kosa kata bahasa Arab ( mufradat ). Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif dengan pendekatan studi kasus tunggal. Teknik pengumpulan data dalam penelitian ini menggunakan teknik observasi langsung, wawancara, dan dokumentasi. Kemudian dianalisis dengan menggunakan tahapan reduksi data, penyajian data, dan penarikan kesimpulan.Hasil penelitian ini ditemukan bahwa terdapat 190 kesalahan bunyi yang diucapkan subjek penelitian, terdiri dari 65 cacat substitusi, 34 cacat penghilangan, 2 cacat penambahan, dan 89 cacat distorsi. Distorsi merupakan kategori cacat bunyi yang paling dominan pada penelitian ini. Kesalahan yang dilakukan subjek penelitian (MAR) terjadi karena penderita disartria kehilangan kendali atas otot alat bicaranya yang mengakibatkan ketidakmampuan mengartikulasikan ucapan dengan baik.

Association between exposure to antibiotics during pregnancy or early infancy and risk of autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disorder, language disorder, and epilepsy in children: population based cohort study

ObjectiveTo evaluate the association between antibiotic use during pregnancy or early infancy and the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders in children.DesignNationwide population based cohort study and sibling analysis.SettingKorea’s National Health Insurance...

Identifying developmental language disorder (DLD) in multilingual children: A case study tutorial

Purpose A long-standing issue in identifying developmental language disorder (DLD) in multilingual children is differentiating between effects of language experience and genuine impairment when clinicians often lack suitable norm-referenced assessments. In this tutorial we demonstrate, via a case study, that it is feasible to identify DLD in a multilingual child using the CATALISE diagnostic criteria, Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings (LITMUS) assessment tools, and telepractice. Method This tutorial features a case study of one 6-year-old Urdu-Cantonese multilingual ethnic minority child, and seven age- and grade-matched multilinguals. They were tested via Zoom using Urdu versions of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (LITMUS-MAIN), the Crosslinguistic Lexical Task (LITMUS-CLT), the Crosslinguistic Nonword Repetition Test (LITMUS-CL-NWR), and the Sentence Repetition Task (LITMUS-SRep). Result The child scored significantly lower in the LITMUS tests compared to her peers in her best/first language of Urdu. Together with the presence of negative functional impact and poor prognostic features, and absence of associated biomedical conditions, the findings suggest this participant could be identified as having DLD using the CATALISE diagnostic criteria. Conclusion The result demonstrates the promise of this approach to collect reference data and identify DLD in multilingual children. The online LITMUS battery has the potential to support identification of multilingual DLD in any target language.

Grammatical correction and morphological productivity tasks as potential identifiers of developmental language disorder in Spanish-Catalan bilingual children: a pilot study

ABSTRACT A critical problem for Catalan-Spanish bilinguals is the lack of assessment tools to conduct valid and accurate oral language evaluations. The purpose of this preliminary study was to provide pilot data for a new potential assessment tool in Catalan. We examined the possibility that two novel tasks, a grammatical correction (GramCorr) and morphological productivity (MP; nonword and word subtasks), could differentiate between Catalan-speaking children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD) with good diagnostic accuracy. Twenty-seven school-aged children with DLD (M age = 9;1 years) and twenty-seven age/sex-matched typically developing (TD) children (M age = 9;0 years) participated in the study. Group differences and diagnostic accuracy analyses (sensitivity and specificity and likelihood ratios) were conducted. Results showed that the overall accuracy of children with DLD was significantly poorer than that of the TD controls in the two tasks. The preliminary diagnostic accuracy results suggested that the overall test (GramCorr+MP) could be useful in identifying children with DLD (cut-off point 62.1%; sensitivity (.929)/specificity (.893); +LH (8.67)/-LH (0.80). Moreover, the overall MP task (nonword + word subtasks; cut-off point 60%; sensitivity (.897)/specificity (.931), +LH (13.00)/-LH (0.111)) appears to provide adequate information to help in detecting DLD. The nature of both tasks, their usefulness for practitioners and future steps in the design of valid tools for the identification of Catalan speaking children with DLD are discussed.

Exploring the Views, Perspectives, and Current Practices of Educational Speech-Language Pathologists and Psychologists in Canada: How Childhood Developmental Language Disorders Are Identified and Diagnosed.

Across Canada, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and educational psychologists (EPs) work in schools to identify and diagnose childhood learning difficulties, including language disorders; however, both professional groups use different terms to identify and diagnose them. Using the term developmental language disorder (DLD), developed by the CATALISE consortium, would provide consistency across fields. To effectively implement the use of DLD, it is crucial to understand how EPs and SLPs currently identify childhood language disorders and to investigate the potential impact of a practice change in this area. The study conducted 13 moderated focus groups and one one-on-one semistructured interview across six Canadian provinces in English and French. We found some social and structural barriers that impact SLPs' and EPs' current practice of identifying and diagnosing language disorders generally (e.g., the belief that children should not be labeled "too early," institutions that prioritize certain professional diagnoses over others, board policies that do not allocate funds for language disorders, professionals' reticence to convey difficult information such as a diagnosis to collaborators) and DLD specifically (e.g., different professional taxonomies, lack of familiarity with or uncertainty about the label, not recognized as a condition in schools that may or may not even identify language disorder as a category of exceptionality). Nevertheless, the focus groups also revealed the extent to which DLD could be useful in their current practice. Both EPs and SLPs acknowledged the importance of working together; therefore, DLD could inspire more collaborative practice between SLPs and EPs around language disorders.

Juvenile language disorders and their interaction with dentistry: a bibliometric analysis.

To analyze the 100 most frequently cited articles on language disorders in children and adolescents and assess the interplay with dentistry by means of a bibliometric analysis. A search of the 100 most frequently cited articles up to December 2021 on language disorders was performed in the Web of Science Core Collection database. Four researchers extracted the data on number of citations, title, authors, country, year of publication, journals, study design, prevalent clinical conditions, and area of expertise. The analyses were performed using VOSviewer and Excel. The total number of citations ranged from 251 to 1,431. Four articles were cited more than 1,000 times. Bishop DVM (10 articles; 3,653 citations) and Tomblin JD (10 articles; 4,261 citations) were the most frequently cited authors. The institutions with the largest number of publications were the University of Oxford/England (11%) and the University of Kansas/USA (8%). Observational study design was the most frequent (77%). Autism spectrum disorder (18%) and dyslexia (14%) were the most broadly investigated clinical conditions. Speech-language pathology (32%) was the area of expertise with the largest number of articles, and none of the top 100 studies showed interplay with dentistry. The 100 most widely cited articles on language disorders are mostly observational, mainly address autism spectrum disorder, and are in the field of speech-language pathology No study reported interplay with dentistry.

Where to start: Use of the bilingual multidimensional ability scale (B-MAS) to identify developmental language disorder (DLD) in bilingual children

Purpose The identification of developmental language disorder (DLD) is challenging for clinicians who assess bilinguals. This paper introduces a protocol-based approach, the Bilingual Multidimensional Ability Scale (B-MAS), for expert raters to identify DLD in bilinguals. Method Three bilingual speech-language pathologists (SLPs) reviewed 166 Spanish-English bilingual children’s profiles, which included performance on direct (morphosyntax, semantics, and narrative tasks) and indirect (parent/teacher survey) measures in both languages. A multidimensional scale (0–5) was adopted to rate children’s performance. A diagnosis of DLD was made if at least two raters assigned a summary rating of ≤2. Result Analysis of the scores on the B-MAS resulted in the identification of 21 children as having DLD. Though different strategies were employed to make decisions, the three SLPs demonstrated high inter-rater agreement across different ratings (intraclass correlation coefficient values ranged from .83 to .90). Conclusion For bilingual populations that are understudied and for which gold standards of assessment are not available, the B-MAS can be adopted as a starting point to study DLD or as a reference standard to develop new assessment tools in that population. Clinically, this protocol could be tailored and evaluated by a group of SLPs serving a large population of a particular bilingual group for diagnostic purposes.

Prevalence and Risk Factors of Speech and Language Disorders in Young Children: A Cross-Sectional Study In a Pediatric Rehabilitation Ward

Background: Speech and language disorders in young children can have substantial impacts on their social, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive development. Understanding the prevalence and risk factors associated with these disorders is crucial for early intervention and effective treatment strategies. Objective: This study aimed to assess the prevalence and risk factors of speech and language disorders in young children presenting to a Pediatric Rehabilitation Ward, to identify the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics associated with these conditions, and to evaluate the therapy patterns utilized in management. Methods: An observational cross-sectional study was conducted at the Pediatric Rehabilitation Ward of Liaquat University Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro Hospital, from May to August 2022. A total of 400 patients, aged 2-10 years and diagnosed with speech-language disorders by a psychiatrist, were included through non-probability convenience sampling. Data on demographics, socioeconomic status, therapy patterns, and diagnostic information were collected through questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS version 25. Results: The study found that language delay was the most prevalent disorder, affecting 61.8% of the children. Males were more frequently affected (68.5%). Seizures were the most commonly reported medical condition in the sample (18.5%). The mean age at diagnosis was 3.58 years. A considerable number of children (38.0%) had a positive family history of speech-language disorders. Socioeconomic analysis revealed that a majority of the children (68%) came from middle-class families. The study also found that combined speech and behavioral therapy was the most common treatment approach (28.8%). Conclusion: Language delay is the most common speech-language disorder among children in this study, with a higher prevalence in males and those from middle-class families. Early detection and a multidisciplinary approach to treatment, including both speech and behavioral therapy, are imperative for effective management.