A study of 35 3-year-olds followed since infancy in a university-affiliated pediatrics clinic and 50 Native American children followed since infancy in a tribal health clinic found early recurrent otitis media with effusion was only associated with increased risk for speech disorder in the Native American children. (Contains extensive references.)…

A study of 20 multiple birth children (MBC) (ages 7-8) and 20 controls found MBC performed significantly more poorly on some tasks of phonological processing, and early phonological skills of MBC were correlated with poor performance on visual rhyme recognition, word repetition, and phoneme detection tasks five years later. (Author/CR)

A survey of 241 school-based speech-language pathologists examined numbers of confirmed and suspected concomitant speech/language disorders in children who stutter and the preferred intervention approaches. Of 467 children, 44 percent had a verified concomitant phonological and/or language disorder with additional children suspected of having such…

This article discusses advances in structural and functional neuroimaging that indicate that, in general, nonfluent aphasias are associated with left pre-rolandic lesions and fluent aphasias occur with left post-rolandic lesions that spare pre-rolandic areas. However, functional neuroimaging studies have also shown that neural dysfunction often…

Two studies, one within subjects and the other across subjects, evaluated the efficacy of teaching sounds in developmental sequence to nine young children (ages three to five). Treatment of later-acquired phonemes led to systemwide changes in untreated sound classes, whereas treatment of early-acquired phonemes did not. Findings suggest…

A study compared 11 preschool children with developmental delays and 15 with autism to evaluate early vocal behaviors in young children with autism. Results indicated that children with autism did not have difficulty with the expression of well-formed syllables, however they did display significant impairments in vocal quality. (Contains…

This article reviews issues in speech motor control and a class of communication disorders known as motor speech disorders that include dysarthrias, apraxia of speech, developmental apraxia of speech, developmental stuttering, acquired (neurogenic and psychogenic) stuttering, and cluttering. Assessment, classification, and treatment of these…

Eight American values/beliefs that affect speech/language service delivery are examined: the importance of time, the need for directness in communication, the appropriateness of informality in communication, the belief in equality, the necessity and efficacy of rehabilitation, the importance of independence, family involvement in rehabilitation,…

This article argues that the use of developmental apraxia of speech (DAS) as a label for infants and toddlers who are prelinguistic may prematurely label a young child. Diagnostic indicators are reviewed and suggestions for diagnostic therapy to pursue appropriate differential diagnoses in the infant-toddler population are proposed. (Contains…

This article reviews the legislative/regulatory, societal, professional, and demographic influences that shaped and defined school-based speech-language practice as it is today. Emphasis is on the fundamental elements of contextually based assessments, educationally relevant intervention plans, and increased collaboration/consultation. Strategies…

This article summarizes some of the limited research on early language screening of at-risk children. Results of the review indicate the vast majority of literature related to this area dealt with speech as opposed to language screening. Further investigation of formal and informal screening methods is urged. (CR)

This study used grammaticality judgments to measure the sensitivity of four school-age children with severe speech and physical impairments (SSPI) to different morphological errors. Results indicated that the SSPI children and control groups made similar judgments. Participants with SSPI had greater difficulty detecting tense-marking errors…

This article explores the issue of linguistic diversity in health care, with a particular focus on interpreter-mediated interactions. The process of literal interpretation and of complete interpretation are described, and a set of questions that speech language pathologists should consider to maximize the success of an interaction are provided.…

Four crisis-precipitating events are identified that have the potential to interfere with the individual's overall adjustment following laryngectomy. Important to the success of alaryngeal speech rehabilitation is the clinician's ability to recognize how laryngectomy may influence the individual's physical, social, psychological, and occupational…

This case study follows Casey, a child with significant speech and language deficits, from age 4 years 2 months until 9 years 9 months. It focuses on a 9-month period starting at age 5 years 9 months during which a meaning-based phonological intervention was used to improve his intelligibility and language skills. Clinicians evoked frequent word…