Browsing by Subject "kielellinen toimintakyky"

Objectives. Specific language impairment (SLI) is a heterogeneous disorder and its symptoms change with development. For most people it has a profound effect on functional ability, participation, and learning. The symptoms are persistent especially among those with difficulties in speech-reception. Simultaneous learning of multiple languages increases the individual variation in linguistic difficulties. Language functioning of Finnish monolingual and multilingual children at age over 10 years has not been thoroughly investigated. The objective of this study was to describe how SLI manifests itself in 11–12-years-old monolingual and multilingual children. The study focused on language ability and health-related quality of life. The acquired information may help in improving supporting practices. Methods. Four male participants at age of 11–12 years living in the Capital Region of Finland, and with SLI diagnosis (F80.2) were recruited from Helsinki University Central Hospital Audiophoniatric ward 22 for the study. Two participants were monolingual and two were multilingual learning Finnish as their second language. The gathered data consisted of language tests and questionnaires intended for parents, teachers, and the participants. Testing was videotaped and the acquired narratives were transcribed. Results were compared against age norms as well as previous literature. Furthermore, the questionnaire data were grouped based on the content, and the results were analyzed qualitatively. In addition, the test results and questionnaire data were compared to each other. Finally, the differences in language abilities were examined in relation to medical reports written before school age. Results and conclusions. All participants had deficiencies in language abilities, but language symptoms, social ability, academic achievement, and quality of life varied individually. Results were in line with previous studies. Difficulties were observed especially in grammatical and reading abilities, short-term memory and word naming. Moreover, according to parents and teachers, the participants had problems in speech reception, narration, pragmatics, and some of them also in social interactions. Finnish vocabulary among the multilingual participants was smaller than that of their monolingual counterparts. However, differences in other areas were larger at single-level than at group-level. Three of the participants still received substantial support in school. Support of the fourth participant had been discontinued due to favorable progress. Majority of the participants perceived their health-related quality of life slightly weaker than that of controls. Based on the results, it is important to support pragmatic skills at school age since previous studies have shown an association of these to social integration. A Study with a larger sample size and longitudinal setting is needed in the future.