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Evidence summaries

Speech and Language Therapy Interventions for Children with Primary Speech and Language Delay or Disorder

Speech and language therapy interventions may be effective for children with expressive phonological and expressive vocabulary difficulties. Level of evidence: "C"

A Cochrane review (abstract , review [Abstract]) included 33 studies. The results of a meta-analysis of 25 studies suggest that speech and language therapy is effective for children with phonological (SMD=0.44, 95% CI 0.01 to 0.86) or vocabulary difficulties (SMD=0.89, 95% CI 0.21 to 1.56), but that there is less evidence that interventions are effective for children with receptive difficulties (SMD=-0.04, 95% CI -0.64 to 0.56).

Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by study quality (inadequate or unclear allocation concealment and small sizes) and by inconsistency (variability in results across studies).

    References

    • Law J, Garrett Z, Nye C. Speech and language therapy interventions for children with primary speech and language delay or disorder. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2003;(3):CD004110. [PubMed]

Primary/Secondary Keywords