Behaviour in Children with Language Development Disorders

Objective: The objective of the study was to explore the univariate and multivariate differences in behavioural problems among children with disorders in expressive or mixed receptive-expressive language development and children with unimpaired language development. Method: Ninety-four children with language development disorders (LDD) between the ages of 4 and 6 years and 94 children (matched by age and sex) without disorders of language development were compared concerning behavioural problems, as measured by the German version of the Child Behavior Checklist/4-18. Results: Thirty-two children (34%) with LDD showed behavioural problems in the clinical range, whereas only 6 control subjects (6%) had scores in this range. Univariate group comparisons between patients and control subjects showed significant differences in all 8 syndromes and the scale "other problems," with patients having higher scores. Multivariate stepwise discriminant analysis showed a significant discriminant function by the scales "other problems," "social problems," "anxious-depressed," thought problems," "attention problems," and "delinquent problems." Conclusions: In general, our results agree with several studies that report that children with speech and language disorders are at special risk for developing behavioural problems. Neurodevelopmental immaturity may be one factor underlying both the disorder in language development and the behavioural problems.