Psychiatric disorder in children with different types of communication disorders

Abstract

Children presenting to a community speech clinic were divided into three major groups according to type of communication disorder: a pure speech disorder, a pure language disorder, and a disorder of both speech and language. Psychiatric evaluations of the three groups of children were done employing interviews with the parents, interviews with the children, and questionnaires from the children's teachers and parents. It was found that the prevalence of psychiatric disorder was highest in the language-disordered group and lowest in the speech-disordered group. Development disorders were also most common in the language-disordered group and least common in the speech-disordered group. The types of psychiatric disorders found in the three groups of children also differed. The implications of these findings are discussed.