Background: The Language Development Survey (LDS) and the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (MB-CDI) are two parental report forms that have been productive in providing data on early child language during the past 30 years. The instruments have been used both in studies relating to typical developing children and in screening…

Children from low-income environments are at increased risk of developing language delays which can negatively affect later academic and social outcomes. As children age, deficits between children with language delays and their typically developing peers continue to widen. In order to prevent future disabilities, efficient early language screening…

This review looks at the impact of word finding deficits, psycholinguistic considerations in naming (including relevant intrinsic and extrinsic variables), behaviors indicative of word finding difficulty, screening for word finding disorders in the classroom, direct assessment (both formal and informal), individual differences, and word retrieval…

An adaptation of the Fluency in Controlled Association subtest of the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination was administered to language-disordered (N=123) and non-disabled (N=286) kindergarten through ninth-grade students. Lack of significant differences on this task suggests that it may not be an appropriate screening device for identifying…

The third of four documents reviews research on assessment in three domains (receptive language skills, expressive language skills, and perceptual and cognitive processes) as the most likely to predict subsequent language development of young children who have yet to speak their first word. Section II focuses on assessment of hearing sensitivity…

This article outlines key components of a medical evaluation of a child who is not talking. Factors to consider during diagnosis and screening are discussed, including the presence of mental retardation, hearing impairments, autism, cerebral palsy, and other disorders. The physiology of speech/language disorders in children is also examined.…