BACKGROUND: The population of children with slow emergence of language development varies widely, both in their initial profile and in their response to intervention. In this sense, there is a group of late talkers who continue to show persistent language difficulties, in some cases exhibiting signs compatible with verbal dyspraxia.
METHODS: In this paper we present the different response to intervention of two profiles of late talkers. Specifically, the Target Word© program (Hanen Centre) was implemented, which is addressed to latetalking children and their families. It combines the technique of focused stimulation with guidance to parents on strategies that stimulate global language development.
RESULTS: Much of the symptomatology shown in one case of poor progress coincides with retrospective descriptions of children subsequently diagnosed with dyspraxia and can be considered early indicators of the disorder: unintelligibility, reduced consonant inventory or difficulties in word repetition.
CONCLUSIONS: The different response to intervention contributes to diagnostic decision making and the early implementation of specific strategies directed to improve speech learning skills by incorporating motor learning principles. The few studies of intervention in suspected verbal dyspraxia in early childhood offer promising results on a variety of speech assessment indicators, and provide practitioners with valuable information with which to support the intervention in this population.
Introducción: La población de niños que comienzan con lentitud el desarrollo del lenguaje varía ampliamente, tanto en su perfil inicial como en la respuesta a la intervención. En este sentido, existe un grupo de niños, denominados hablantes tardíos, que continúan mostrando dificultades persistentes en el lenguaje. Algunos de estos niños muestran signos compatibles con la dispraxia verbal, y que se ponen de manifiesto a lo largo de la intervención. Método: En este trabajo presentamos la diferente respuesta a la intervención de dos perfiles de hablante tardío. Concretamente, se aplicó el programa Target Word©, del centro Hanen, que conjuga la técnica de la estimulación focalizada con la orientación a padres sobre estrategias que promueven el desarrollo del lenguaje. Resultados: Gran parte de la sintomatología mostrada en uno de los dos casos, que experimentó un progreso pobre, coincide con las descripciones retrospectivas de niños posteriormente diagnosticados con dispraxia y pueden considerarse indicadores tempranos del trastorno: ininteligibilidad, inventario consonántico reducido o dificultades en la repetición de palabras. Discusión: La diferente respuesta a la intervención contribuye a la toma de decisiones diagnósticas y a la aplicación temprana de estrategias específicas para la mejora de las habilidades de aprendizaje del habla mediante la incorporación de los principios del aprendizaje motor. Los escasos estudios de intervención en casos de sospecha de dispraxia verbal en la infancia temprana ofrecen resultados prometedores en diversos indicadores de evaluación del habla, y proporcionan a los profesionales una información valiosa en la que fundamentar la intervención en esta población.

In recent years, there have been intense international discussions about the definition and terminology of language disorders in childhood, such as those sparked by the publications of the CATALISE consortium. To address this ongoing debate, a Delphi study was conducted in German-speaking countries. This study consisted of three survey waves and involved over 400 experts from relevant disciplines. As a result, a far-reaching consensus was achieved on essential definition criteria and terminology, presented in 23 statements. The German term \'Sprachentwicklungsstörung\' was endorsed to refer to children with significant deviations from typical language development that can negatively impact social interactions, educational progress, and/or social participation and do not occur together with a potentially contributing impairment. A significant deviation from typical language development was defined as a child\'s scores in standardized test procedures being ≥ 1.5 SD below the mean for children of the same age. The results of this Delphi study provide a proposal for a uniform use of terminology for language disorders in childhood in German-speaking countries.

Language disorders impact on child overall development. Policy directives for the child guide on ways to follow up child development for greater efficiency and effectiveness. The aim of this paper was to identify the policies positions of the proposals on the attention to language problems in the child health field. From a documental research, national and international guidelines were reviewed in order to identify actors, objectives, contexts, motivations, arguments, justifications and proposals regarding the follow of child development and child language. We performed a critical analysis in order to explain these positions and place on discussion the arguments that support them. The results point out to consensual aspects that place the problems of child development as vulnerabilities producers. Language problems cross the boundaries of political, scientific and social matters. These issues are challenges to interdisciplinary and intersectoral work and guide the need to promote the most effective responses of public policy for people requiring language support. The link of this discussion with the concepts of life cycle and human development for achieving full citizenship requires further deepening.
Alterações da linguagem impactam no desenvolvimento integral da criança. Diretrizes políticas orientam sobre os modos de acompanhar o desenvolvimento infantil para maior eficácia e efetividade. O objetivo deste artigo foi identificar posições políticas sobre propostas para atenção aos problemas de linguagem no campo da saúde da criança. A partir de uma revisão documental, foram examinadas diretrizes nacionais e internacionais, a fim de identificar atores, objetivos, contextos, motivações, argumentos, justificativas e proposições quanto ao acompanhamento do desenvolvimento infantil e da linguagem da criança. Realizou-se uma análise crítica a fim de explicitar tais posicionamentos e colocar em discussão os argumentos que os sustentam. Os resultados indicam consenso ao situarem os problemas do desenvolvimento infantil como produtores de vulnerabilidades. Problemas de linguagem são transversais às fronteiras de assuntos políticos, científicos e sociais. Essas questões são desafios ao trabalho interdisciplinar e intersetorial e pautam a necessidade de respostas mais efetivas no campo da política pública para pessoas com tais demandas. A articulação dessa discussão aos conceitos de ciclo de vida e desenvolvimento humano para o alcance da plena cidadania requer maior aprofundamento.

To provide audiologists with strategies to minimise confounding cognitive and language processing variables and accurately diagnose central auditory processing disorder (CAPD).
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Strategies are reviewed to minimise confounding cognitive and language processing variables and accurately diagnose CAPD.
Differential diagnosis is exceedingly important and can be quite challenging. Distinguishing between two or more conditions presenting with similar symptoms or attributes requires multidisciplinary, comprehensive assessment. To ensure appropriate interventions, the audiologist is a member of the multidisciplinary team responsible for determining whether there is an auditory component to other presenting deficits or whether one condition is responsible for the symptoms seen in another. Choice of tests should be guided both by the symptoms of the affected individual, as established in an in-depth interview and case history, the individual\'s age and primary language, and by the specific deficits reported to be associated with specific clinical presentations. Knowing which tests are available, their strengths and limitations, the processes assessed, task and response requirements, and the areas of the central auditory nervous system (CANS) to which each test is most sensitive provides the audiologist with critical information to assist in the differential diagnostic process.

In order to distinguish more accurately and easily between language difficulties in need of therapy or special support versus language impairments a S2K guideline was developed by interdisciplinary teams of different (medical) societies and professional associations. This guideline was published in 2011 and has replaced all existing monodisciplinary guidelines. According to the new S2K guideline standardised measures of language testing are mandatory. Apart from reviewing the S2K guidelines, this article aims to suggest how these guidelines can be established in clinical practice. By closely following this new guideline, testing and diagnosing children with language difficulties is believed to be enhanced considerably, and also comply with quality management standards.

There are relatively few clinical psychologists working in paediatric cochlear implant centres in the UK and in this respect we lag behind other countries such as the USA and The Netherlands. In an effort to promote the added value our profession can offer teams, the clinical psychologists working in paediatric CI centres have put together good practice guidelines. This article outlines the rationale for putting together the guidelines, highlights the unique contribution clinical psychologists can offer, outlines the evidence base for psychological input in this clinical population, and offers a fictional case study for illustration.

This is a consensus statement on pediatric cochlear implantation by the European Bilateral Pediatric Cochlear Implant Forum. The consensus statement was determined by review of current scientific literature to identify areas of scientific and clinical agreement of current understanding of bilateral cochlear implantation. The statement is \"Currently we feel that the infant or child with unambiguous cochlear implant candidacy should receive bilateral cochlear implants simultaneously as soon as possible after definitive diagnosis of deafness to permit optimal auditory development; an atraumatic surgical technique designed to preserve cochlear function, minimize cochlear damage, and allow easy, possibly repeated re-implantation is recommended.\"

Sixty subjects between the ages of 21 and 48 months were placed into groups based on mean length of utterance (MLU) and chronological age (CA) to test Stampe\'s hypothesis about the development of phonological processes. The subjects were given the Phonological Process Analysis (Weiner, 1979), and a proportion score for each of sixteen phonological processes was derived for each subject. The use of the various phonological processes across MLU groups and age groups was analyzed by multiple regression correlation, three-way ANOVA, and Tukey\'s HSD tests. MLU was found to be the best classification for the subjects for describing the phonological processes. The results and discussions present MLU-referenced guidelines regarding the emergence, duration, elimination, and universality of the sixteen phonological processes.

General guidelines are presented for the assessment of children\'s pragmatic behaviors. Specific evaluation procedures and activities are described for each component of the organizational framework detailed in Part 1.

A consensus transcription procedure is presented, and representative data are reported. The procedure includes explicit response definitions for mapping narrow phonetic transcription onto dichotomous, nonerror/error scores and 17 rules for obtaining consensus between two transcribers. The data include descriptive statistics for consensus rule use based on over 18,000 sounds transcribed during a normative study of speech sound acquisition in children aged 3-6 years. Validity and reliability issues in phonetic transcription are discussed.