Children with Specific Language Impairment: Parental Accounts of the Early Years

Abstract

Parent views of specific language impairment have received little attention in the literature, even though speech and language development is the single greatest area of concern for parents. This article examines parental views of events up to, and including, language unit admission for their children. A series of qualitative interviews was conducted with parents. Parents felt that, apart from speech and language difficulties, the children were developing normally. They placed a low value on speech and language therapy, and saw language unit admission as the only intervention that 'worked'. Initially, some children were placed in mainstream school, where their failure to keep up with peers resulted in transfer to a language unit. Parent views provide a unique understanding of the impact of specific language impairment on the child and family. Such information is essential for the early diagnosis and treatment of this condition.

The applicability of normalisation process theory to speech and language therapy: a review of qualitative research on a speech and language intervention

“…One reason could be that parents and practitioners are happy to have relatively passive parental roles within the clinical relationship and, therefore, no work on this aspect of the intervention is needed. In a qualitative study on parents' views of speech and language therapy in children with the most severe speech and language difficulties, Rannard [5] found that parents rate a partnership approach to their child's needs very positively. A partnership approach in educational provision was identified as a process that helped parents to change their initially negative opinion about special educational provision when they had a preference for mainstream education.…”

“…When parents talk about getting a referral to speech and language therapy services in the UK, they frequently use words like 'fight' and 'battle' [1,5,6]. Rannard [5] sampled 40 families and found an average time lag of two years between the point when parents first had concerns about their child and the point of referral to a speech and language practitioner.…”

“…To date, there are only a handful of studies on the parental perspective on speech and language therapy [5-13], and only three of these studies have used the type of qualitative methodology that is needed to explore the parents' frame of reference [6,7,11]. Given the priority for early intervention, the focus on the transition into speech and language therapy is a good place to start to deepen understanding of the perspectives of the main participants.…”

Entrevista continuada na clínica de linguagem infantil

“…No entanto, alguns trabalhos já começam a considerar o papel da família, ainda que em uma visão mais psicossocial do que psicanalítica (RANNARD;LYONS, 2004). Neste aspecto, o Brasil encontra-se adiantado, já que, em uma perspectiva interacionista atravessada pela psicanálise, há uma visão clínica de linguagem na qual o trabalho familiar é fundamental com crianças que não falam (TERÇARIOL; DELAZERI; SCHILLO, 2003).…”

Percepção de pais e professores do desenvolvimento de crianças de três a seis anos comparada com o Teste de Denver II

“…Rosenbaum (1998) enfatiza esta observação ao dizer que, "com respeito a dificuldades do desenvolvimento, é importante lembrar que pais são os peritos mundiais sobre seus filhos". Outros pesquisadores (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000;Williams & Holmes, 2004;Glascoe, 2003;Glascoe, 1997;Glascoe, 1993;Hutchinson et al, 2001;Young et al, 2003;Coghlan et al, 2003;Rannard et al, 2004;Tough et al, 2006;Rydz et al, 2006) afirmam que pais são capazes de notar atrasos de linguagem, problemas de comportamento e levantar preocupações válidas para a detecção precoce de problemas de desenvolvimento. Trabalhos recentes (Glascoe, 2003;Glascoe, 1999;Glascoe, 1997;Coghlan et al, 2003;McCormick, 1982;Williams & Holmes, 2004;Rydz et al, 2006) também apontam que crianças com variações sutis de comportamento e no desempenho e na performance de atividades são frequentemente identificadas pelos pais e não pelos profissionais de saúde.…”