This study shows that medical residents enjoy supervision from collaborative, understanding and patient attending doctors. Medical residents prefer to be treated as adult learners and enjoy feedback that is constructive, measured and adapted to their professional needs.
Children who are slow to speak often present clinicians with a dilemma-should they conduct further investigations or just wait and see if the problem resolves (as it does in most children aged under 3 years)? Two paediatricians propose a guideline that can be used to investigate and manage children with speech or language delays Delay in speech and language development is the most common developmental disorder in children aged 3 to 16 years. The prevalence of this disorder ranges from 1% to 32% in the normal population and is influenced by factors such as the age of the child at presentation and the test method used in diagnosis.1 2 A high rate of comorbidity (up to 50%) is known to exist between psychiatric disorders such as autism and disorders of speech and language development. Despite the prevalence and reported risks of comorbidity, however, about 60% of cases of speech and language delay tend to resolve spontaneously in children aged under 3 years. Children who are slow to speak form a particular category of patients with speech and language developmental disorders and often present clinicians with a dilemma-whether to conduct further investigations or just wait and see. This is because a delay in speaking could be either a normal (and temporary) stage in the child's development or the initial symptom of a psychiatric, neurological, or behavioural problem. As a result, the timely diagnosis, choice of therapy, and an individualised approach to the child with a speech and language delay become imperative as these interventions may prevent subsequent psychological or psychiatric problems later in life.We provide here an update of the current literature on speech and language development in children. Using a real patient encounter, we illustrate how a child with a delay in language development is presented to the clinician. We also propose a guideline that can be used to investigate and manage children with speech or language delays.
Sources and selection criteriaWe did a database search on Medline (National Library of Medicine) using the following key words: "speech and language disorders", "children (0-18 years)", "screening methods", "diagnostics", and "interventions". We chose relevant review and research articles that had been published on the subject after 1990 because we were interested in the latest developments in the area. We used 10 articles to prepare this report, chosen on the basis of the originality of content and relevance to the topic of this review. We used two paediatric neurology textbooks as additional sources of information. A general practitioner, general paediatrician, paediatric neurologist, and linguist commented on the review.
DefinitionsSeveral definitions exist to describe delayed language development in children, reflecting the screening and diagnostic methods used by different institutions.
Summary pointsDelay in speech and language development in children can be defined as a "delay in speech and/or language development compared with controls matched for age, sex, cultural backg...
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.