The impact of speech and language impairments on 5-to-9-year-olds’ daily lives

Abstract

The aim of this qualitative study was to increase awareness of the fact that, for children with speech and language impairments without an obvious cause, quality of life might be affected. To date, to the researcher’s knowledge, there have been no local studies which looked into the communication, social participation, learning, and well-being of children with Developmental Language Disorders (DLD), Speech Sound Disorders (SSD), or Written Language Disorders (WLD). To address this research gap, a case study approach was adopted. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with three children aged 5–9 years, one presenting with DLD, one with SSD, and one with WLD, together with their parent, Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) and educator. It emerged that the children’s speech and language impairment did not impact quality of life for all of them and for all four aspects which were being studied. This might have been brought about by the interaction of various factors internal and external to the child, including age, severity of the disorder and also their background (family upbringing and input). Communication, social participation, learning, and well-being were affected in different ways for each child. The results have important implications for holistic management of children with speech and language impairments in Malta.