Evaluation for suspected language disorders in preschool children

Abstract

Pediatricians can identify a child with a developmental language disorder by expanding a traditional developmental assessment with special screening tests of language skills. They can direct parents to specialists who can define the nature of the language disturbance in more detail and predict its natural history. They must then support the parents as they learn to use the community resources available for remediation of their child. As more is learned about the biologic bases of normal and abnormal language development in children, pediatricians will undoubtedly have an even more central role in identification of patients with language disorders and education of their families.