Population Estimates, Health Care Characteristics, and Material Hardship Experiences of U.S. Children with Parent-Reported Speech-Language Difficulties: Evidence from Three Nationally Representative Surveys

• Published in: Language, speech & hearing services in schools Vol. 48; no. 4; pp. 286 - 293
• Main Authors: Sonik, Rajan A, Parish, Susan L, Akorbirshoev, Ilhom, Son, Esther, Rosenthal, Eliana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Speech-Language-Hearing Association 01.10.2017
• Subjects: Access to Health Care; Adolescent; Child; Child Health; Child, Preschool; Childhood speech disorders; Children; Children & youth; Cross-Sectional Studies; Economically Disadvantaged; Female; Health care access; Health Insurance; Health Needs; Health Services Accessibility - statistics & numerical data; Health Surveys; Humans; Incidence; Intellectual Development; Language disorders; Language Impairments; Male; National Surveys; Parents; Parents & parenting; Performance Based Assessment; Polls & surveys; Population; Poverty; Poverty - statistics & numerical data; Prevalence; Receptive Language; Reported speech; Socioeconomic factors; Socioeconomic Status; Speech; Speech disorders; Speech Disorders - economics; Speech Disorders - epidemiology; Speech Impairments; State Surveys; Statistical Analysis; Surveys; United States - epidemiology; Young Children; United States; United States > US
• ISSN: 0161-1461; 1558-9129
• DOI: 10.1044/2017_LSHSS-16-0072

Purpose: To provide estimates for the prevalence of parent-reported speech-language difficulties in U.S. children, and to describe the levels of health care access and material hardship in this population. Method: We tabulated descriptive and bivariate statistics using cross-sectional data from the 2007 and 2011/2012 iterations of the National Survey of Children's Health, the 2005/2006 and 2009/2010 iterations of the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs, and the 2004 and 2008 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation. Results: Prevalence estimates ranged from 1.8% to 5.0%, with data from two of the three surveys preliminarily indicating increased prevalence in recent years. The largest health care challenge was in accessing care coordination, with 49%-56% of children with parent-reported speech-language difficulties lacking full access. Children with parent-reported speech-language difficulties were more likely than peers without any indications of speech-language difficulties to live in households experiencing each measured material hardship and participating in each measured public benefit program (e.g., 20%-22% experiencing food insecurity, compared to 11%-14% of their peers without any indications of speech-language difficulties). Conclusions: We found mixed preliminary evidence to suggest that the prevalence of parent-reported speech-language difficulties among children may be rising. These children face heightened levels of material hardship and barriers in accessing health care.