Differential Diagnosis and Treatment of Children with Speech Disorder

Paediatric speech and language therapists are challenged bydiminished resources and increasingly complex caseloads. The newedition addresses their concerns. Norms for speech development aregiven, differentiating between the emergence of the ability toproduce speech sounds (articulation) and typical developmentalerror patterns (phonology). The incidence of speech disorders isdescribed for one UK service providing crucial information forservice management.
The efficacy of service provision is evaluated to showthat differential diagnosis and treatment is effective for childrenwith disordered speech. Exploration of that data providesimplications for prioritising case loads. The relationship betweenspeech and language disorders is examined in the context ofclinical decisions about what to target in therapy.
New chapters provide detailed intervention programmes forsubgroups of speech disorder: delayed development, use of atypicalerror patterns, inconsistent errors and development verbaldyspraxia.
The final section of the book deals with specialpopulations: children with cognitive impairment, hearing andauditory processing difficulties. The needs of clinicians workingwith bilingual populations are discussed and ways of interventiondescribed. The final chapter examines the relationship betweenspoken and written disorders of phonology.