Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Autism
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by O'hare, A. E.
Right arrow Articles by Aitken, K.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by O'hare, A. E.
Right arrow Articles by Aitken, K.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

The Identification of Autism in Children Referred to a Tertiary Speech and Language Clinic and the Implications for Service Delivery

A. E. O'hare

Edinburgh Sick Children's NHS Trust, UK

R. Quew

Edinburgh Sick Children's NHS Trust, UK

K. Aitken

Edinburgh Sick Children's NHS Trust, UK

The Edinburgh Children's Hospital speech clinic is a joint paediatric and speech therapy clinic which was first established in 1950 and accepts referrals of children for whom speech and language difficulties are the principal concern. An audit was conducted for children presenting consecutively over January 1993 to January 1994 to identify what proportion of these children had autism and related disorders. The mean age of presentation of all children seen was in their final pre-school year, with 80 percent of children already being managed in the community by other professionals such as speech and language therapists and educational psychologists. Of 103 children, 22 had autism or a related disorder. A retrospective analysis of parental report and clinical assessment at the first clinic consultation confirmed that a complaint of no communication with peers coupled with temper tantrums was highly predictive for membership of this group of disorders. The audit confirmed that the contribution of autism to the children's communication difficulties had not been fully recognized and addressed prior to the speech clinic consultation. The audit has informed our practice and we intend attracting clinical psychology and child psychiatry services into the speech clinic to enhance the service we deliver and also to employ our findings to highlight consideration of autism in the young child with speech and language difficulties.

Key Words: autism • identification • language • speech • speech therapy

Autism, Vol. 2, No. 2, 171-180 (1998)
DOI: 10.1177/1362361398022005
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 AutismHome page
V. Moore and S. Goodson
How Well Does Early Diagnosis of Autism Stand the Test of Time?: Follow-Up Study of Children Assessed for Autism at Age 2 and Development of an Early Diagnostic Service
Autism, March 1, 2003; 7(1): 47 - 63.
[Abstract] [PDF]