Assessment of Speech and Language Skills in Children

Abstract

During the last twenty years the perinatal mortality rate in the industrialized countries has markedly decreased. Several factors have contributed to this development, such as improvement in maternal care, improved supervision during delivery, and advances in early neonatal basic care and neonatal intensive care. Those children who have required intensive care or other special treatment in the neonatal period have often been followed up for one or two years at the paediatric departments where they have been treated, after which their further follow-up has been the responsibility of health centres. In recent years it has been increasingly questioned whether examination of the neurological and motor development alone during the first years of life is sufficient for obtaining a picture of the children's developmental progress and health. It is considered by some authors that the assessment of their development would be more reliable if it included not only motor functions but also linguistic and literary skills, as well as social adjustment.