ABSTRACT
Aims
This study investigated the occurrence of speech-language disorders during the acute phase of recovery in children with acquired brain injury (ABI) with an age between 0 and 16 years.
Methods
A retrospective chart analysis was performed including 228 children (n = 118 boys, n = 110 girls) who consecutively presented with ABI over a 10-year period (2006–2016) at the children’s rehabilitation center at Ghent University Hospital. Descriptive statistical analyses were applied.
Results
71.1% (162/228) of the children who were admitted to the rehabilitation center presented with a speech-language disorder. Within this sample (n = 162), results demonstrated the occurrence of acquired disorders in language (48.9%), speech (35.1%), learning (33.3%), swallowing (21.5%), and early communicative functions (17.4%). The proportion of children presenting with disturbances in early communicative functions differed by ABI cause. More than half (10/18, 58.8%) of the children who presented with ABI following inflammatory processes demonstrated disorders in early communicative functions.
Conclusions
Especially in young children who present with inflammatory processes as the ABI cause, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) must be aware of disorders in early speech-language development. The present findings allow the SLP to appropriately plan research, education, and clinical management.
Declaration of interest statement
There is no conflict of interest.
Questions for Oral Interviews
Personal Factors
Describe your academic experience at UO so far.
Describe your social experience at this university so far.
What factors have influenced your level of confidence that you will be academically successful (or unsuccessful) at this university? [examples if needed: good high school grades, seeing other Latinxs succeed, encouragement from faculty, getting good grades]
Can you name specific ways in which your family has supported (or not supported) you in the transition to college?
What do you wish your family understood better about your transition to college?
What do you wish faculty and staff at this university understood better about your family situation?
Environmental Factors
Have you found it challenging to adjust to college life? If so, in what ways specifically?
Are your Latino cultural values (whatever that means to you) important to you as a student? If so, how well do you feel those values are represented at this university?
Have you personally experienced discrimination or been treated in stereotypical ways at this university because of your race or ethnicity? If so, please briefly describe the experience(s).
Do you know other Latinxs who have experienced discrimination or been treated in stereotypical ways at this university because of their race or ethnicity? If so, please briefly describe the experience(s).
Sociocultural Factors
Have you experienced any tension or stress between your cultural values and those of other students (or the institution) since arriving at this institution? If so, can you briefly describe them?
Do you consider yourself (or your family) to be religious? If so, how do your religious beliefs influence your college life?
Organizational Factors
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