7-YEAR FOLLOW-UP OF SPEECH LANGUAGE IMPAIRED AND CONTROL CHILDREN - PSYCHIATRIC OUTCOME/

This study examined the 7-year psychiatric outcome of 202 speech/langu age (S/L) impaired and control children selected from a community samp le at age 5 years. Children with S/L at age 5 years were more likely t o be psychiatric cases at age 12.5 years than were normal controls, ev en if their S/L improved. Controlling for concurrent psychiatric disor der, S/L impairment at age 5 years was still associated with an increa sed rate of psychiatric disorder at 12.5 years. Psychiatric disorder a t age 12.5 years was more likely to co-occur with language disorder th an with speech disorder. Copyright (C) 1996 Association for Child Psyc hology and Psychiatry.