The Prevalence of Communication Disorders in Children: A Summary and Critical Review

Abstract

This paper seeks to summarise and evaluate research into the prevalence of communication impairment in children. Such research is at times contradictory and at best fraught with difficulties of controllable and uncontrollable variables. Uncontrollable variables include the changing base of what constitutes a disorder, and differing identification techniques which provide different prevalence results. As well, issues of study design such as sample size, sample representativeness, and type of examiners are also important when considering the results of prevalence research.