Background: Marshall-Smith syndrome (MSS) is an infrequently described entity characterised by failure to thrive, developmental delay, abnormal bone maturation and a characteristic face. In studying the physical features of a group of patients, we noticed unusual behavioural traits. This urged us to study cognition, behavioural phenotype and…

Using data from the Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study (SRI International, 2002), this study estimated reading growth trajectories in a nationally representative sample of 3,421 students with disabilities ages 7 to 17 representing 11 federal disability categories. Reading achievement in all disability categories increased with age,…

Communication is important to all people. Through gestures, body language, writing, facial expressions, speech, and other means, people are able to share their thoughts and ideas, build relationships, and express their needs. When they cannot communicate, their behavior, learning, and sociability can all suffer. Fortunately, augmentative and…

Speech-sound disorders are common in preschool-age children, and are characterized by difficulty in the planning and production of speech sounds and their combination into words and sentences. The objective of this study was to review and compare the results of the "Sensory Profile" ([Dunn, 1999]) in children with a specific type of speech-sound…

The specific mechanisms that underlie childhood stuttering are not fully understood. The current study investigated these mechanisms by comparing the effect on fluency of priming different components of a short sentence. The main findings were that: (1) both children who stutter (CWS) (n = 12, M age = 6;3) and children who do not stutter (CWNS) (n…

This article documents the typological occurrence and interactions of two seemingly independent error patterns, namely Velar Fronting and Labial Harmony, in a cross-sectional investigation of the sound systems of 235 children with phonological delays (ages 3;0 to 7;9). The results revealed that the occurrence of Labial Harmony depends on the…

Every year, under the federal law known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), millions of children with disabilities receive special services designed to meet their unique needs. Early intervention services are provided through the state to infants and toddlers with disabilities under three years of age and their families. For…

Velo-cardio-facial syndrome (VCFS) is a genetic disorder caused by a microdeletion of chromosome 22q11.2. Although there is some variability, VCFS is associated with a characteristic physical, behavioral, and cognitive phenotype. This review article focuses on aspects of language and literacy development in VCFS, describing what is known and…

Clinical diagnostic procedures to distinguish stuttering from non-stuttering individuals partially rely on the observation of characteristics of stuttered words or syllables. The purpose of this study was to examine the sensitivity and specificity of such a procedure, and to describe the observed characteristics of stuttered words. Methods…

Aim: Worster-Drought syndrome (WDS), or congenital suprabulbar paresis, is a permanent movement disorder of the bulbar muscles causing persistent difficulties with swallowing, feeding, speech, and saliva control owing to a non-progressive disturbance in early brain development. As such, it falls within the cerebral palsies. The aim of this study…

Speech-related fMRI activation was examined in six hemispherectomy patients (three left LX, three right RX, four with congenital and two with late-acquired hemiplegia) operated in childhood for the relief of drug-resistant epilepsy. Although the temporal and sensorimotor pattern of activation was similar to that found in neurologically intact…

Background: Children and young people with Down's syndrome present with deficits in expressive speech and language, accompanied by strengths in vocabulary comprehension compared with non-verbal mental age. Intelligibility is particularly low, but whether speech is delayed or disordered is a controversial topic. Most studies suggest a delay, but no…

Epidemiological research was used to develop the Speech Disorders Classification System (SDCS). The SDCS is an important speech diagnostic paradigm in the field of speech-language pathology. This paradigm could be expanded and refined to also address treatment while meeting the standards of evidence-based practice. The article assists that process…

The primary objective of the study was to determine whether there was any difference, with respect to depression, between mothers of children with cerebral palsy (CP) and mothers of healthy children. The secondary objective was to evaluate whether some additional factors had an impact on the depression of the mothers. The study included 49…

Purpose: In this study, the authors evaluated literacy outcome in children with histories of speech sound disorder (SSD) who were characterized along 2 dimensions: broader language function and persistence of SSD. In previous studies, authors have demonstrated that each dimension relates to literacy but have not disentangled their effects.…