Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Apr 29;14(4):e081446.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-081446.

Outcome measures for children with speech sound disorder: an umbrella review

Sam Harding  1   2 , Sam Burr  2 , Joanne Cleland  3 , Helen Stringer  4 , Yvonne Wren  2   5
Affiliations

Outcome measures for children with speech sound disorder: an umbrella review

Sam Harding et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Objective: Speech sound disorder (SSD) describes a 'persistent difficulty with speech sound production that interferes with speech intelligibility or prevents verbal communication'. There is a need to establish which care pathways are most effective and efficient for children with SSD. Comparison of care pathways requires clearly defined, evidence-based, interventions and agreement on how to measure the outcomes. At present, no definitive list of assessments, interventions or outcomes exists. The objective of this umbrella review paper is to provide a rigorous and detailed list of assessments, interventions and outcomes which target SSD in children.

Design: In December 2022, a systematic search of Ovid Medline, OVID Embase, CINAHL, PsycInfo and Cochrane and a number of grey literature platforms were undertaken. 18 reviews were included, and subsequently 415 primary research articles were assessed for data related to assessments, interventions or outcomes. The AMSTAR (Assessing the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews) framework was used to assess the quality of the retained reviews.

Setting: Reviews were retained which took place in any setting.

Participants: The population is children of any age with a diagnosis of SSD of unknown origin.

Primary and secondary outcome measures: Reviews reporting outcomes, assessment and interventions for children with SSD.

Results: Extraction and analysis identified 37 assessments, 46 interventions and 30 outcome measures used in research reporting of SSD. Not all of the listed outcomes were linked to specific outcome measurement tools, but these were measurable through the use of one or more of the assessments extracted from the retained reviews.

Conclusions: The findings of this review will be used to develop a Core Outcome Set for children with SSD. The findings are part of a rigorous process essential for advancing healthcare research and practice in the specific area of speech and language therapy for children with SSD.

Prospero registration number: CRD42022316284.

Keywords: community child health; patient reported outcome measures; speech pathology; systematic review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses flow chart. JBI, Joanna Briggs Institute.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Follow-on Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses flow chart.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Number of articles by year of publication of 415 relevant papers retained within the reviews published between 2000 and 2022 and the year of publication of the retained reviews.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. American Psychiatric Association . DSM-5 Task Force. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 5th edn. American Psychiatric Publishing, Available: https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/book/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596
    1. Eadie P, Morgan A, Ukoumunne OC, et al. Speech sound disorder at 4 years: prevalence, Comorbidities, and predictors in a community cohort of children. Develop Med Child Neuro 2015;57:578–84. 10.1111/dmcn.12635 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Shriberg LD, Fourakis M, Hall SD, et al. Extensions to the speech disorders classification system (SDCS). Clin Linguist Phon 2010;24:795–824. 10.3109/02699206.2010.503006 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Shriberg LD, Tomblin JB, McSweeny JL. Prevalence of speech delay in 6-year-old children and Comorbidity with language impairment. J Speech Lang Hear Res 1999;42:1461–81. 10.1044/jslhr.4206.1461 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wren Y, Miller LL, Peters TJ, et al. Prevalence and predictors of persistent speech sound disorder at eight years old: findings from a population cohort study. J Speech Lang Hear Res 2016;59:647–73. 10.1044/2015_JSLHR-S-14-0282 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources