THE PERSISTING COMMUNICATIVE DIFFICULTIES OF REMEDIATED LANGUAGE-IMPAIRED CHILDREN

This study addresses the effiacy of dismissal criteria used by speech and language pathologists by investigating communicative functioning i n children declared 'remediated'. A battery of measures comprising the Language Assessment and Remediation Procedure (LARSP); the Behavioura l Inventory of Speech Act Performances (BISAP); the BISAP Addendum and the Devereux School Behaviour Rating Scale (DESB) was conducted on fi ve children with language impairment who had been declared 'remediated '. Findings far certain 'remediated' subjects revealed persisting prob lems. The results suggest that decisions about dismissal from therapy may, in some cases, be premature and point to the need for a broad-bas ed perspective concerning remediation dismissal decisions. An addition al study on larger populations and the use of designs which investigat e long term outcomes would further inform clinical decision-making con cerning dismissal from therapy.