Language disorders in preschool children: predictors of outcome -- a preliminary report --

Child neurologists are often asked to evaluate young children who have failed to develop speech despite adequate hearing and skills for non-verbal tasks. At our center, in addition to a standard neurologic evaluation, hearing test, and EEG, we obtain videotape recordings of the child and his mother in play interaction. These observations enable us to assess the child's non-verbal communicative abilities, his affect, his ability to utilize toys symbolically and creatively, and his attention span. Approximately 20 preschool children who were non-verbal or had very limited speech at entry into our study are being followed longitudinally. Readily observable aspects of language and behavior were scored by reviewed the serial videotapes obtained over a 2-year period. Predictors of outcome that do not require detailed linguistic analysis of the child's utterances are tentatively identified and discussed.