Screening child psychiatric inpatients for communication disorders: a pilot study

This study was part of a project concerned with speech and language disorders among child psychiatric inpatients. Twenty-two consecutively admitted children were screened and 10 were positive. Of these, nine were diagnosed with a speech or language delay, prevalence = 40.9 (9 of 22). A chart review of the preceding 2-year period showed that 27 of 128 admissions had been referred to the speech clinic and that 25 had positive findings, for a prevalence of 19.5% (25 of 128). The difference in the observed prevalence in these two studies was significant (chi 2 = 4.89, rho = .03). Standard clinical practice may miss some children with communication disorders (estimated sensitivity = 39%), while the new screening method shows promise (estimated sensitivity = 82%).