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There is a lack of longitudinal studies on the broad-based outcomes in children with Developmental Phonological Disorder (DPD). The aim of this study was to investigate listening and processing skills in a clinical sample of 7-to-10-year-old children diagnosed with DPD in their preschool years and compare these to same-aged typically developing (TD) children. The Evaluation of Children's Listening and Processing Skills (ECLiPS) was completed by parents of 115 children with DPD and by parents of 46 TD children. The total ECLiPS mean score, and the five subscale mean scores, the proportion of children with clinically significant difficulties (<= 10th percentile), and the proportion of children with co-occurrence of clinically significant difficulties on more than one subscale, were calculated. Results showed that the ECLiPS mean scores did not differ between the groups. There was no difference between groups regarding language and literacy, but a higher proportion of children with DPD than TD had difficulties in the total score, speech, and auditory processing, environmental and auditory sensitivity, and pragmatic and social skills. In addition, 33.9% of children with DPD had clinically significant difficulties in two or more subscales compared to 10.9% of TD children.

Children with Down syndrome (DS) using intensive computer-based phonics (GraphoGame, GG)were studied. The children’s independence and improvement in phonological processing, letterknowledge, word decoding, and reading strategies were investigated. Seventeen children (5–16years) with DS participated in a crossover design through 8 weeks (one period), with three testsessions separated by 4 weeks. Children were randomly assigned to GG intervention or regularschooling (RS). All children completed one period and eight children completed two periods. Amajority gradually became independent in managing GG. At the group level, very little benefit wasfound from working with GG. At the individual level, several children with mild to severe intellectualdisabilities showed increased decoding of trained words. After one period of GG and RS, anincrease in alphabetically decoded words was found. The finding suggests that when individualchallenges are considered, computer-based phonics may be beneficial for children with DS in theireducational setting.

The academic career path is seldom straightforward. Many health professionals and researchers face stress and uncertain employment opportunities. Joining a collegial support group, a so-called “mastermind” group, is one way to help navigate these challenges. We investigated postdoctoral researchers’ (N=16) experiences with participating in a mastermind group using an online survey. Four themes emerged from their responses: (I) A place that offers conversation in confidence; (II) An opportunity for personal and professional development; (III) A quality break and time for reflection, and (IV) Challenges experienced by mastermind group participants. This study establishes that taking part in a mastermind group can effectively help shift focus from the negative aspects of a challenge faced by its group members to the positive aspects of a potential solution.

This thesis comprises three studies focusing on Swedish school-age children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Sixty-one participants with SLI aged 8-12 years were recruited from all existing school language units for children with severe SLI in Stockholm, Sweden. This thesis presents the first Swedish study of family history in SLI and the first empirical study of a clinical marker for Swedish SLI, and contributes to the sparse amount of research studies focusing on reading skills in Swedish children with SLI. In Study I, the family history of a broad phenotype in SLI was investigated, based on telephone interviews with the parents of the participants with SLI and of 100 matched controls. Significantly higher prevalence rates of language, literacy and social communication problems were found in three generations of SLI relatives as compared to relatives of the controls. In Study II, based on assessments of the participants with SLI and 86 controls, and family history interviews; non-word repetition was reported as a clinical marker for Swedish SLI and was reported to be associated with a family history of language and/or literacy problems. In Study III, reading skills in the participants with SLI were investigated and found to be related to nonword repetition and to a family history of literacy problems in the parents. The results, based on a large clinical sample with SLI, stress the importance of a family-focused approach to child language pathology. Knowledge about familial aggregation should be considered when making predictions about outcome, prevention and intervention.

First, we explore the performance of nonword repetition (NWR) in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing children (TD) in order to investigate the accuracy of NWR as a clinical marker for SLI in Swedishspeaking school-age children. Second, we examine the relationship between NWR, family aggregation, and parental level of education in children with SLI. A sample of 61 children with SLI, and 86 children with TD, aged 8-12 years, were administered an NWR test. Family aggregation, measured as the prevalence of language and/or literacy problems (LLP) in parents of the children with SLI, was based on family history interviews. The sensitivity and specificity of nonword repetition was analyzed in a binary logistic regression, cut-off values were established with ROC curves, and positive and negative likelihood ratios reported. Results from the present study show that NWR distinguishes well between Swedish-speaking school-children with and without SLI. We found 90.2% sensitivity and 97.7% specificity at a cut-off level of -2 standard deviations for binary scoring of nonwords. Differences between the SLI and TD groups showed large effect sizes for the two scoring measures binary (d = 2.11) and percent correct consonants (PCC) (d = 1.79). The children with SLI were split into two subgroups: those with no parents affected with LLP (n = 12), and those with one or both parents affected (n = 49). The subgroup consisting of affected parents had a significantly lower score on NWR binary (p =.037), and there was a great difference between the subgroups (d = 0.7). When compared to the TD group, the difference from the subgroup with affected parents was almost one standard deviation larger (d = 2.47) than the difference from the TD to the subgroup consisting of non-affected parents (d = 1.57). Our study calls for further exploration of the complex interaction between family aggregation, language input, and phenotypes of SLI.