Specific language impairment: effect on later language development: a literature review.

BACKGROUND: Children with specific language impairment (SLI) are at considerable risk for later language development. However there has not been a good literature review to provide understanding and to get information relative to parental counseling and decision making for further management. OBJECTIVE: To summarize the literature review on SLI and effect on later language development. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Longitudinal studies were systematically explored to seek evidence- based information to confirm the lasting effect of SLI in later language development. RESULTS: Natural history data indicated that approximately 50% of children with specific expressive language delay spontaneously remitted or outgrew it at age 5-8. However, long-term follow-up studies showed their language problems emerged later at age 15. The rest of the children's (50%), language impairment persisted and had a high risk for SLI later. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that active intervention should be performed as soon as possible for children with persisting SLI.

Development of community-based speech therapy model: for children with cleft lip/palate in northeast Thailand.

BACKGROUND: Surgical treatment can reduce disfigurement for children born with cleft lip/palate, however, most children are left with speech and language problems. This creates a new problem as speech and language services is limited. OBJECTIVE: To combine the principles of Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR), Primary Health Care (PHC) and institutional medical approaches for reaching and treating speech disordered children with cleft lip and/ or palate in remote area. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The authors conducted the study from participatory workshops for development of a Community-Based Model. RESULTS: Community-Based Speech Therapy Model for children with cleft lip/palate was established based on healthcare system. CONCLUSION: Model can be implemented among children with cleft lip/palate for further process in Northeast and other areas of Thailand as well as developing countries where there is a limitation of speech therapy.

Aural rehabilitation for deaf children: a northeastern Thailand experience.

Aural rehabilitation for deaf children (hearing loss > 90 dB) has been established since World War II. Many developed countries such as USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Netherlands and Australia have famous institutes providing aural rehabilitation for these children so that they are able to communicate with other people in the hearing society. Teaching programs include auditory training, speech stimulation, speech correction and developing language skills by using natural conversation and real models. In Thailand, the most common mode of communication for deaf children is total communication which focuses on sign language, thus, limiting the ability to communicate with other people. With the realization of this problem, the preschool program for deaf children was set up in 1993 by an audiologist and a speech pathologist at the speech and hearing clinic, Department of Otolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University. A study of 31 deaf children with the average better ear hearing threshold of 103 dB (103.5 +/- 7.01), who visited the program regularly showed that it took an average of 277 days or approximately 9 months (9.25 +/- 4.1) after hearing aid fitting, in acquiring spontaneous meaningful single words or 638 days or approximately 21 months (21.3 +/- 4.3) in acquiring simple conversation or sentences of more than three words. The limitation and problems of the program will be discussed.

Velopharyngeal assessment procedures for the Thai cleft palate population.

The evaluation of velopharyngeal insufficiency and its associated effects on speech represent a complex interaction of both listener judgments of nasality and visual observation of the velopharyngeal mechanism. Although trained judgments of hypernasal speech are the most frequent index leading to the clinical decision to treat or not to treat, the clinician must also determine what kind of treatment would provide the best results, especially if surgical repair is being considered. This requires an accurate assessment of velopharyngeal insufficiency. Assessment of velopharyngeal insufficiency requires visualization of the velopharyngeal mechanism using endoscopy or radiographic analysis in order to evaluate the ability to achieve closure of the velopharyngeal port. The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive diagnostic procedure that integrates perceptual judgments of nasality with visual judgments of velopharyngeal insufficiency using endoscopy. Moreover, this paper provides rationales for the selection and implementation of both non speech and speech protocols to enable the clinician to accurately assess the parameters of nasality and velopharyngeal insufficiency.

Frequency of occurrences of sounds in general daily life conversation at Khon Kaen University.

Relative frequencies of occurrences of various sounds are very useful information in the field of communication disorders : functional articulation disorders, or organic articulation disorders such as dysarthria, apraxia of speech etc. Frequencies of occurrences of vowels, tones, initial and final consonants were studied. The recording tape of five-minute general daily life conversations of 64 graduate students were decoded and analysed. The results showed that the average number of syllables spoken in a 2-student conversation is 69.85 syllables/minute. The most frequently occurring sounds in the Thai language were /k/, /_n/, /ai/ and mid tone. On the other hand the least frequently occurring sounds were /f/, /_p/, /iu/ and rising tone. The Spearmann rank order correlation coefficient of this result and the previous studies are 0.8753 and 0.8935 (p<0.001). The order of frequencies of occurrences of sounds were the criteria for determining which sound to correct first and also useful to assess, treat and it could be developed to be a passage which is the tool for evaluation.