Follow-up of children attending infant language units: outcomes at 11 years of age.
A large cohort of 242 children who had been attending infants language units at 7 years of age was followed up when the children were in their final year of primary school. Two hundred (83%) of the children were reassessed at 11 years of age on a wide battery of language and literacy measures, on a test of non-verbal ability, an autism checklist and a communication checklist. In total, 89% of children still scored < 1 SD from the mean on at least one test of language and the majority (63%) scored poorly on three or more assessments demonstrating widespread difficulties. Compared with non-verbal abilities at 7 years of age, a large proportion of the cohort also performed poorly on performance IQ subtests (28%). A further 10 children scored highly on a checklist for autistic spectrum disorder. Thus, only 115 (58%) children could be said to meet criteria for specific language impairment. A small group of 16 children appeared to have entirely resolved their difficulties. These outcomes and their implications for education and long-term impact of the disorder are discussed.
Conti-Ramsden
G
G
Human Communication and Deafness, School of Education, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK. gina.conti-ramsden@man.ac.uk
Botting
N
N
Simkin
Z
Z
Knox
E
E
D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D007807:Language Tests; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D020380:Needs Assessment