The association of intervention receipt with speech-language profiles and social-demographic variables

This study explored the effects of oral communication and demographic chara cteristics on intervention receipt. Oral communication characteristics incl uded speech-sound production and receptive and expressive language status. Demographic characteristics included race, sex, residential strata, and nei ghborhood income level. With regard to speech-sound production and language , 1,929 kindergartners were divided into four speech-language subgroups: sp eech impaired only, language impaired only, speech and language impaired, a nd normal in both speech and language. In terms of expressive and receptive language modalities, the group of children was divided into four expressiv e-receptive subgroups: expressive impaired only, receptive impaired only, e xpressive and receptive impaired, and normal in both expressive and recepti ve language. Associations of speech versus language and expressive language versus receptive language with intervention receipt were examined in both categorical and continuous manners. Results showed that speech had a strong er effect on intervention receipt than language, but that this difference c ould not be explained by the effect of speech on social and academic functi ons compared to that of language. Expressive language had a stronger effect on intervention receipt than receptive language (when treated as continuou s variables). This also could not be explained by the effect of these varia bles on social and academic function. These results suggest that the curren t referral and service delivery system depends on communication characteris tics that are expressive and, thus, most readily observable. This referral and service delivery approach, however, fails to identify children that hav e the greatest social and academic risks. Methods of reversing this trend w ere discussed. Among all demographic variables examined, only sex is relate d to intervention receipt, that is, boys were more likely to have received intervention.