[Long-term school-development of children with impaired language skills: 15-years follow up after dismissal from child care centres with speech therapy].

BACKGROUND: Severe language impairment (SLI) in children causes multiple developmental disturbances. Less is known concerning the long-term efficacy of Child care centres with speech therapy (CCC) and the validity of of IQ-testing.

AIM OF THE STUDY: Follow-up of school-development of SLI-children from CCC and analysis of the the prognostic relevance of IQ-testing as monitored by the surrogate-parameter "school-development".

METHODS: 1. Retrospective study with questionnaires; 2. Analysis of documents from CCC. 88 children (60 males, 28 females) were included.

RESULTS: Median length of stay in CCC was 18 months (range: 12-36 months); present study was performed 0,5 to 15 years after dismissal from CCC. Due to parents;remembrance more than 90% of the children suffered on symptoms of SLI within the 2 (nd) year of life; about 30% of the children received grommets; IQ was determined by SON-R 2,5-7 in 68 children and amounted 99 (58-131). In 32 children (>10 years) school-careers were followed after termination of primary schools: 5 children visited "schools for handicapped children", 26 children attended mainstream-schools, 19 of them in schools with higher academic levels ("advanced-" and "integrated high schools", "grammar schools"). In 16 of 68 children the IQ amounted between 70 to 89, 11 of these children visited a mainstream school. In 45 of these children IQ was >90, 6 of these children had to attend a "school for handicapped children".

CONCLUSIONS: IQ-testing is thought to be a limited prognostic parameter for long-term school-development of SLI-children. Findings indicate, that about 80% of the SLI-children benefitted by the therapy in specialized CCC and visited a mainstream school.