The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of a positive family history of speech and/or language impairments in an African American sample. The first phase of the study used questionnaires from the primary caregivers of 161 children. The questionnaires allowed for an examination of family history as a function of a childs socioeconomic level (+/- high school level of maternal education), educational placement (+/- receipt of services by a speech language clinician), and clinical status (+/- profile consistent with a diagnosis of SLI). The second phase of the study included interviews that were collected from 17 families who completed the questionnaires. All families who indicated a willingness to be interviewed were called, but only 17 were accessible by phone. Through the interviews, the family histories of the children were further documented.
Results were that families from low socioeconomic backgrounds reported greater rates of a positive speech and/or language family history than those from middle socioeconomic backgrounds. Families of children classified as SLI also reported higher rates of a positive family history than the families of children who were not classified as SLI, and this comparison controlled for differences in the families socioeconomic levels. Significant differences in positive family history rates were not found to be related to the childrens educational placements.
Results from the phone interviews revealed that of those children whose families reported a positive speech and/or language history, the number of members within each family who reported a positive history ranged from one to five (mean = 1.8 family members; SD = 1.3). Half of these members were in the childrens immediate families, while the other half were in their extended families. Given the limited number of families who participated in the interviews, an examination of these data as a function of the childrens socioeconomic status, educational placement, and clinical status was not completed.
Together, these findings support the claim that the clinical diagnosis of SLI has a familial component, but future studies that seek to explore this familial component need to measure, and rigorously control for, the socioeconomic levels of children and their families.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-04022007-175836 |
| Date | 03 April 2007 |
| Creators | Rodrigue, Tricia McCully |
| Contributors | Melda Kunduk, Paul Hoffman, Janna Oetting |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04022007-175836/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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