Depression in Children with Speech, Language, and Learning Disorders

Abstract

This paper reports on the prevalence of affective disorders in a sample of children presenting to a community clinic for speech or language evaluation. It was found that, among 600 children studied, 4% had some type of affective disorder, according to DSM-HJ diagnostic criteria. The children with affective disorders were generally not typical of the children presenting for speech and language evaluation: they tended to be older on the average, to have more psychiatric disorders, and to have more learning disorders than the “typical” child presenting for speech/language evaluation. The relationships between affective disorders, learning disorders, and speech/language disorders are discussed.