Fourteen-year follow-up of speech/language-impaired and control children: Psychiatric outcome

Objective: To examine the association between early childhood speech and la nguage disorders and young adult psychiatric disorders. Method: In a longit udinal community study conducted in the Ottawa-Carleton region of Ontario, Canada, interviewers administered structured psychiatric interviews to age 19 participants who were originally identified as speech-impaired only, lan guage-impaired, or nonimpaired at age 5. The first stage of the study took place in 1982 when participants were 5 years old, and the latest stage of t he study took place between 1995 and 1997 when participants had a mean age of 19 years. This report examines the association between early childhood s peech/language status and young adult psychiatric outcome. Results: Childre n with early language impairment had significantly higher rates of anxiety disorder in young adulthood compared with nonimpaired children. The majorit y of participants with anxiety disorders had a diagnosis of social phobia. Trends were found toward associations between language impairment and overa ll and antisocial personality disorder rates. Males from the language-impai red group had significantly higher rates of antisocial personality disorder compared with males from the control group. Age of onset and comorbidity d id not differ by speech/language status. The majority of participants with a disorder had more than one. Conclusions: Results support the association between early childhood speech and language functioning and young adult psy chiatric disorder over a 14-year period. This association underscores the i mportance of effective and early interventions.