Transcript LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION IMPAIRMENT IN CHILDREN WHO …

LANGUAGE AND
COMMUNICATION IMPAIRMENT
IN CHILDREN WHO ARE
REFERRED TO PSYCHIATRIC
SERVICE
Inger-Lise Sæther, PhD.(Spec.ed.), Ed. therapist
Nic Waal Institute for Child, Adolescent and Family Psychiatry. Regional Centre for Education and
Research/
Regional Centre for Education and Research in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
and
Bente Gjærum, M.D., Ph.D., B.S (Ed.)
Centre for child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Oslo /
Regional Centre for Education and Research in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Region East and
South.
INTRODUCTION
• There has been a growing attention to a strong co - occurrence
between language impairment and social and emotional problems.
• Estimates of linguistic impairment persisting into later childhood
and adolescence varies from 50% to 90 % of cases referred to child
and adolescent psychiatric service (Mawhood & al. 2000).
• The purpose of the current study is to focus on the impact of
language and communication impairment in the child’s daily life,
and the clinical consequences drawn from this impact.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
• How does language and communication impairment influence the
child’s “lived experience”?
• What impact does language and communication impairment have
on the development of identity and ”a sense of one’s place”
(Bourdieu, 1995)?
• How does the language and communication impairment influence
the interpersonal world of the child?
• What are the characteristics of the language and communication
impairment?
SAMPLE
Within the sample from CCAP, 69 children were judged to have a normal
MA and language and communication impairment, defined as expressive /
impressive impairment or both.
Included in the sample for this study were children with diagnoses within the
Emotional, Social and Behavioural Disorders (ESBD), children with
Psychiatric Symptoms, no diagnoses (PS), and children with No Psychiatric
Symptoms (NPS). All the children have been assessed twice with a five years
interval in Gjærum’s project.
In the current study, a strategic sample will be obtained from this group,
based on the following criteria:
•
•
•
Age
Gender
Language and communication
impairment, as described in the
previous study
•
•
Behaviour symptoms, as
described in the previous study
Geography.
METHODS AND PROCEDURES
The current study will be based on a case – study design
(Denscombe, 1998; Yin, 1994), using a triangulation of methods:
• ”Life mode interview” with each child, focusing on the child’s
”lived experiences” (Haavind et al. 2001)
• Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF)
(Semmel et al. 1998)
• Personality Inventory of Children (PIC) (Lachar, 1982)
• Leiter International Performance Scale, Revised (1997)