In a systematic review, prevalence estimates for childhood speech delay only ranged from 2.3 to 24.6% (Law et al., 2000). Since this systematic review, additional prevalence studies have been published.:
- 25.2% parent-identified concerns about how their child “talked and made speech sounds” (11.8% “concerned”; 13.4% “a little concerned”) (n = 4,983; 4-5 years) (McLeod & Harrison, 2009)
- 12.0% parent-identified “speech not clear to others” (n = 4,983; 4-5 years) (McLeod & Harrison, 2009)
- 8.7% diagnosed by a speech-language pathologist with “isolated speech impairment”, and 14.3% with “comorbid speech and language impairment” (n = 308; school students) (Jessup, Ward, Cahill & Keating, 2008)
- 3.8% classified as having speech delay using the Speech Disorders Classification System and stimuli from conversational speech samples and a published word articulation test (n = 1,328; 6 years) (Shriberg, Tomblin & McSweeny, 1999)
- 3.6% identified as having persistent speech sound disorder in a large population study using > 1.2 standard deviations below the mean on percentage consonants correct scores taken from connected speech samples (n = 7,390; 8 years) (Wren et al., 2016)
- 3.4% achieved a standard score performance of ≤79 on a speech assessment (n = 1,494; 4 years) (Eadie et al., 2014)
- 1.7% parent-identified “speech disorders” (n = 12,388; 0-14 years) (Keating, Turrell, & Ozanne 2001)
- 1.06% teacher-identified “speech sound disorders” (n = 10,425; school students) (McKinnon, McLeod, & Reilly, 2007)
- United Kingdom: The Middlesbrough Primary Care Trust of the reported period prevalence of speech difficulties was 29.1%, compared with receptive language difficulties (20.4%), expressive language difficulties (16.9%), dysfluency (5.3%), and voice or nasality disruption (2.0%) (Broomfield & Dodd, 2004)
- United States: 55.8% of children in grades K-3 were scored on speech sound disorder and 74.7% of Pre-K students were scored on the articulation/ intelligibility ASHA Functional Communication Measures (n = >16,000 students) (Mullen & Schooling, 2010)
References
Broomfield, J., & Dodd, B. (2004a). Children with speech and language disability: Caseload characteristics. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 39(3), 303-324.
Eadie, P., Morgan, A., Ukoumunne, O. C., Ttofari Eecen, K., Wake, M., & Reilly, S. (2015). Speech sound disorder at 4 years: Prevalence, comorbidities, and predictors in a community cohort of children. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 57(6), 578-584. doi:10.1111/dmcn.12635
Jessup, B., Ward, E., Cahill, L., & Keating, D. (2008). Prevalence of speech and/or language impairment in preparatory students in northern Tasmania. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 10(5), 364 - 377.
Keating, D., Turrell, G., & Ozanne, A. (2001). Childhood speech disorders: Reported prevalence, comorbidity and socioeconomic profile. Journal of Paediatrics & Child Health, 37(5), 431-436.
Law, J., Boyle, J., Harris, F., Harkness, A., & Nye, C. (2000). Prevalence and natural history of primary speech and language delay: Findings from a systematic review of the literature. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 35(2), 165-188.
McKinnon, D. H., McLeod, S., & Reilly, S. (2007). The prevalence of stuttering, voice, and speech-sound disorders in primary school students in Australia. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 38(1), 5-15.
McLeod, S., & Harrison, L. J. (2009). Epidemiology of speech and language impairment in a nationally representative sample of 4- to 5-year-old children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 52(5), 1213-1229. doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2009/08-0085)
Mullen, R., & Schooling, T. (2010). The National Outcomes Measurement System for pediatric speech-language pathology. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 41, 44-60. doi:10.1044/0161-1461(2009/08-0051)
Shriberg, L. D., Tomblin, J. B. & McSweeny, J. L. (1999). Prevalence of speech delay in 6-year-old children and co-morbidity with language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 42, 1461-1481.
Wren, Y., Roulstone, S., Miller, L.L., Emond, A. & Peters, T. (2016). The prevalence, characteristics, and risk factors of persistent speech disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 59, 647-673.
Compiled by Sharynne McLeod, Charles Sturt University and Yvonne Wren, University of Bristol - 2018
