Assessment of Speech and Language Skills in Children

Abstract

A speech and language assessment procedure was developed to study different aspects of speech and language skills in children 6.5 years old who had needed intensive care in the neonatal period. It was required that the procedure could be carried out at one examination session and that it should characterize a broad spectrum of language skills and permit detection of deviations in language development.

The assessment comprises three parts. Part A is an evaluation of the child's spontaneous speech during a 10- to 15-minute conversation between the child and the assessor. Eight different variables are assessed, and an overview of the child's conversational behaviour is obtained. Part B is an assessment of speech and language skills. A set procedure is used to assess auditory discrimination, interaction between auditory and speech motor capacity, different comprehension functions, vocabulary and word fluency. Some motor tasks are included to elucidate the relationship between speech and non-linguistic fine motor activity. Part C is an interview with the parents.

A control group of 40 children was tested. The assessment protocol is now being applied for follow-up examination of children who have needed neonatal intensive care at Uppsala University Hospital, Sweden.