Psychiatric and behavioral characteristics of children with communication disorders

A detailed description is presented of two large groups of children with communication disorders. The first is a group of language-delayed, psychiatrically disturbed children who were referred to the UCLA Neuro-psychiatric Institute, called the "psychiatric group. " The second group of children, called the "language group, " presented to a community speech and hearing clinic in the Los Angeles area offering no psychiatric services. These children were referred for a wide variety of speech and language problems. The questions addressed in studying these two groups of children were: (a) What is the prevalence and what are the types of psychiatric and behavioral disorders seen in children with speech and language problems? (a) Are there are unique aspects about the psychiatric and behavioral prob-lems in children with communication disorders? (c) Are there differences in the types of behavioral problems seen in children with communication dis-orders who are referred to a psychiatric clinic as opposed to those who were referred to a community speech and hearing center? There are good theoretical reasons to believe that children who have com-munication disorders are at risk for the development of psychiatric and behavioral problems. It is known that children with handicaps of all types are at risk for psychiatric disorders. For example, intellectually retarded children with measured intelligence quotients below 70 have a prevalenc