Relationship of Language, Intelligent and Social Quotients in Children with Speech and Language Disorder

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship of language, intelligent and social quotients in children with speech and language disorder and to evaluate the clinical usefulness of language quotient for predicting the extents of cognitive and social functions. METHOD: Total 139 children who visited the department of rehabilitation medicine for the evaluation of suspected speech-language delay. All children were evaluated for receptive and expressive language quotients, articulation accuracy, verbal, performance and full-scale intelligent quotients and social maturation assessment. RESULTS: Approximately 70% of the children who had chief complaints of speech or language disorder were diagnosed as 'receptive and expressive language developmental delay'. Intelligent and social quotients of the children with receptive and expressive language developmental delay were significantly lower than those of the other groups (p<0.05). Both receptive and expressive language quotients, but not dysarticulation, were significantly correlated with intelligent and social quotients (p<0.05). Multiple regression analysis demonstrated that the language quotients could predict intelligent and social quotients as simple equations (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: Primary result of receptive and expressive language quotients from screening test of language evaluation might be able to predict cognitive function and social maturity, which also showed high-degree positive correlation with intelligent and social quotients. This result could provide a useful guideline for further developmental studies in children with speech and language disorder who received primary speech evaluation.

Endocrine and developmental correlates of unilateral cryptorchidism in a wild baboon.

A wild, group-living 8.5-year-old adult baboon was found to have only a single palpable testicle, the only case of cryptorchidism found among more than 200 males that we have examined. This young adult had an unusually small body size for his age, one that was comparable to that of immature males two years younger, and during maturation his body mass was increasingly small for his age. As a young adult, he also had very low testosterone concentrations, which, in combination with his small size, history of impaired growth, and the absence of any obvious scars around the scrotum, suggest that this is a case of spontaneous unilateral cryptorchidism of unknown cause rather than one of monorchidism arising from injury. Despite striking differences in his growth, adult body size, and testosterone levels, the male's cryptorchidism seemed to have relatively little effect on his social and sexual maturation in his natal group. Nonetheless, it may be related to his inability to gain entry into another group after dispersal.