Acquired Neurologic Deficits in Young Children: A Diagnostic Journey with Dora

Joan C. Arvedson; Denise M. Simon

doi:10.1055/s-2008-1064037

Seminars in Speech and Language, Table of Contents

Semin Speech Lang 1998; 19(1): 71-81
DOI: 10.1055/s-2008-1064037

Acquired Neurologic Deficits in Young Children: A Diagnostic Journey with Dora

Joan C. Arvedson¹ , Denise M. Simon²

¹Speech-Language-Hearing Department, Children's Hospital of Buffalo; Department of Otolaryngology, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences, State University of New York at Buffalo, School of Social Sciences, Buffalo, New York
²Speech-Language-Hearing Department, Children's Hospital of Buffalo, Buffalo, New York

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Young children with limited communication abilities are often difficult to diagnose. When a neurologic insult occurs prior to language development, the communication effects tend to be less predictable than when the same event occurs in an older child or in an adult with a history of “normal” language use. Information in the medical chart regarding status during prelinguis-tic periods for cognition, motor, and verbal function should be helpful in predicting outcomes in some instances, but a series of decisions, over time, are likely to be necessary to reach a definitive communication diagnosis. As children become more verbal, the characteristics of the motor speech system can lead to new or changing diagnoses.

KEY WORDS

motor-speech - pediatric - neurologic deficit

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