Test To Spot Specific Language Impairment In Children Could Save Billions, Says Leading Scientist

Aug. 1, 2011 - PRLog -- A ten minute test to identify potentially debilitating Specific Language Impairment (SLI) in pre-school and early-years children could save the country billions if used as a routine country-wide assessment, according to the scientist who created it.

Professor Heather van der Lely, a cognitive neuroscientist, was speaking after the publication of a paper into her unique Grammar and Phonology Screening (GAPS) test  in PLoS ONE, the internationally acclaimed, peer-reviewed on-line scientific journal.

The paper was based on a study by a team of scientists – including Professor van der Lely - who put the test’s performance in terms of accuracy under the microscope and discovered that it was capable of identifying children with early signs of SLI with a 98 per cent accuracy rate.

“The study confirms that GAPS is not only a tool that is quick and easy to use by anyone but is also extremely accurate. So why aren't all children being screened to stop the devastation of their lives by SLI? “asked Professor van der Lely, who created and devised the test four years ago.

“Early identification of children with SLI has the potential to save the country billions in terms of treatment and benefits costs. If all children can’t be routinely tested with GAPS then perhaps it should be available in supermarkets?

“What started out as a simple test for the use of anxious parents and speech and language therapists could now become a standard diagnostic tool for the educational and medical professions because of its accuracy in identifying SLI, “ said Professor van der Lely, an affiliated professor at Harvard University who also led the PLoS ONE study.

“The GAPS test potentially sets a new gold standard for diagnosis as it is targeted at specific theoretically grounded symptoms of SLI, leading to better diagnosis and more specific and targeted interventions in the future.

“We know if these conditions are left untreated they can have an extremely negative impact on the individual’s employment prospects in their adult lives. In fact 63 per cent of young offenders have language impairment.

“So it is essential we catch these children early so we can give them the help they need,” added the professor, speaking from her Clerkenwell, London home.

“My PLoS ONE paper is based on a small study; so of course, we have to be cautious about it. However, the results are very impressive and ,crucially, speech and language therapists verified that all the children who were identified by GAPS did indeed have language impairments and required specialist help.”

Professor van der Lely has now sent a copy of her paper to House of Commons Speaker John Bercow, author of the Bercow Report, a 2008 parliamentary review of services for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs.

Hilary Gardner, a practicing speech and language therapist and a member of the original GAPS team said: “It is great to see this work being carried forward as it brings well grounded theory into practice.

“This positive evidence of the value of screening comes at a time when the need to focus on language and communication is crucial to healthy child development and success in education – something that has been highlighted in the Government review of the Early Years Foundation Stage by Dame Clare Tickell."

Anita Kerwin-Nye, Director of The Communication Trust, says; “Communication difficulties are the single biggest disability issue facing pre-school children today. In the National Year of Communication, we welcome anything that adds to the evidence of how best to screen and identify children with speech and language difficulties.

“The Communication Trust, as a 40-strong coalition with expertise in speech, language and communication, has publicly called for screening at two and a half years, 5 years and at key times such as if a child is showing behavioural problems.”

Since its launch, Professor Heather van der Lely’s ground-breaking £50, ten minute GAPS test has been adapted into twelve other languages and has enabled thousands of parents and carers across Europe and the USA to establish whether their children have or are at risk from such debilitating language disorders.

“What really motivated me to develop this test was seeing first-hand how failing to diagnose these problems was blighting so many young lives,” said the academic who is also a visiting professor at École Normale Supérieure in Paris and the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium.

“In most cases, once diagnosed, these language disorders can be helped or overcome with the right treatments and professional help. But if that diagnosis is made too late, individuals can be condemned to a lifetime of under-achievement or even descent into delinquency.

“By identifying these language problems in pre-school or early-years school children we give parents and professionals a real chance to deal with them and enable each child to achieve their true potential.”

“Current figures indicate 7 per cent of children have specific language impairment (affecting more than 500,000 in the UK) and ten per cent suffer from Dyslexia,” she said. “Many more have language impairments which can occur alongside other conditions and with disorders such as ADHD, Downs Syndrome and Autism. In fact, about 50 per cent of both children with Dyslexia and those with Autism have language impairment.

“What was needed was a simple, quick test that would give parents and carers the power to see if their worries were ill founded or if their child really did have a problem or weakness that needed addressing. The end result was the GAPS Test,” added the Professor who was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists last year.

Ironically, Professor van der Lely’s studies into language disorders and her work on the development of the GAPS Test has led her to believe that she has dyslexia – even though she was never formally tested.

“I believe a hiccup in my education many years ago may be explained by dyslexia. There was something of a delay in me achieving my potential,” she explained. “Happily the teaching professionals around me fuelled my determination to work within this fascinating field.”

ENDS

To learn more about GAPS or to order a copy click onto www.dldcn.com