Assessment of speech in early-onset ataxia: a pilot study.

Aim: The aim of the study was to determine whether paediatric ataxia speech subscores are reliably applicable for international early-onset ataxia (EOA) databases. If so, we reasoned that ataxia speech subscores should be associated with ataxia scores and involve high interobserver agreement, including those for internationally applicable Scale for Assessment and Rating of Ataxia (SARA) syllable repetition tasks (SARASRT).

Method: Three independent paediatric neurologists and a speech therapist scored speech in 52 healthy children (mean age 10y, range 4-16y) and 40 individuals with EOA (mean age 15y, range 5-34y).

Behavioural problems in young children with language problems.

Objective: Analysis of behavioural problems in young children with language problems.

Materials And Methods: From 38 children diagnosed with a language problem, the opinion of the parents about the behaviour of their child, scored by the Child Behaviour Checklist 1.5-5 was compared with the behavioural problems in the Dutch population with the Chi-square test.

The discrepancy hypothesis in children with language disorders: does it work?

Objectives: Analysis of the relationship between verbal and nonverbal development in children with language problems.

Methods: From 134 children enrolled in a multidisciplinary diagnostic procedure in a speech and hearing clinic and diagnosed as having a language disorder, the language comprehension score (LCQ) and the nonverbal IQ score (SON-IQ) were compared. t-Tests were used to test whether the children's mean LCQ differs from their mean SON-IQ and to test whether the children with an inadequate LCQ differ from children with an adequate LCQ with respect to discrepancy.

Effect of different treatments in young children with language problems.

Objective: Analysis of the relationship between treatment and improvement on language scores in children with language problems.

Design: Observational longitudinal study.

Materials And Methods: 123 children between 2 and 5 years of age, diagnosed as having a language problem were followed for 1 year.

Children with language problems in a speech and hearing clinic: background variables and extent of language problems.

Objective: Analysis of a clinical population referred for language analysis in terms of background variables and extent of language problems.

Design: Descriptive study.

Materials And Methods: Children referred to a speech and hearing clinic because of assumed language problems were analyzed with standardized tests for language comprehension (Dutch version of the Reynell Developmental Comprehension Scale) and language production (Schlichting test for sentence development).