Articulation - phonological deficits in children with specific developmental language impairment

Abstract

Introduction: Specific language disorder includes primary speech and language disorder developed in children without mental disability, hearing disability, visible neural damage and emotional disability. These children are lagging behind only in speech and language development versus children of typical development. There are studies that describe the articulatory phonological deficits as the clinical manifestations of specific developmental language disorder, but this problem is not sufficiently developed in theory. Aim of study: Qualitative and quantitative analyses of articulation phonological deficits in children who had diagnoses of speech language disorders, in relation to the presence of non specific changes of EEG. Material and methods: The entire sample included 30 patients from Institute for psycho physiological and speech disorders "Professor dr. Cvetko Brajovic". The sample was divided in two groups by the findings of neurologists. The first group included 15 children who had diagnoses of speech - language disorders and with non specific EEG changes. The second group included 15children who had diagnoses of speech - language disorders and without non-specific EEG changes. Tests used for specific language disorders were: Global articulation test, Decrypting of picture and Testing the speech of development. The results were processed by methods of descriptive statistics. Results: Based on the descriptive statistical analysis, it was shown that there are differences in articulation phonological deficits of examined groups. Conclusion: Assessment of articulation phonological abilities compared to non-specific EEG changes may have practical importance in specifying speech language disorders and their prognosis.