Speech and language disorders in children and adolescents

Speech and language disorders have a negative impact on communication. Often, several aspects of speech and language are affected in the same child, such as speech motor disorders and language disorders, or difficulties with language, attention and literacy.

Språkstörning barn

Project group leader

Sofia Strömbergsson

Our projects involve several areas of communication in children and adolescents. We have projects investigating and describing comorbidity of affected functions, projects aiming at developing clinical assessment instruments and projects aiming at the development and assessment of intervention.

We also investigate how different groups of listeners perceive children’s typical and non-typical speech, and how school-aged children with and without developmental language disorders and ADHD manage oral and written narratives.

Project group members

Project group members
Name Title Function
Sofia Strömbergsson Associate professor/SLP Project group leader
Anita McAllister Associate professor/SLP Researcher
Sara Burge SLP Doctoral student
Anna Nyman PhD/SLP Researcher
Åsa Mogren PhD/SLP Researcher
Ann Malmenholt PhD/SLP Researcher
Anna Eva Hallin PhD/SLP Researcher
Carla Wikse Barrow SLP Doctoral student
Anders Sand PhD/SLP Researcher

Research projects

Selected publications (since 2020)

Mogren, Å., McAllister, A., Sjögreen. (2021). Range of motion (ROM) in the lips and jaw during vowels assessed with 3D motion analysis in Swedish children with typical speech development and children with speech sound disorders. Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology, 2021;1-11. DOI: 10.1080/14015439.2021.1890207. 

Rex, S., McAllister, A., Hansson, K., Strand, E. (2021): Performance of Swedish children on a dynamic motor speech assessment. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 2021;1-12. DOI: 10.1080/17549507.2020.1862300. 

Reuterskiöld, C., Hallin, AE., KK Nair, V. & Hansson, K. (2021). Morphosyntactic challenges for Swedish-speaking children with developmental language disorder in comparison with L1 and L2 peers. Applied Linguistics, 2021, 1-21. DOI: 10.1093/applin/amaa058. 

Lagerberg, T. B., Anrep‐Nordin, E., Emanuelsson, H., Strömbergsson, S (2021). Parent Rating of Intelligibility: A Discussion of the Construct Validity of the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) and Normative Data of the Swedish Version of the ICS. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12634. 

Lagerberg, T. B., Holm, K., McAllister, A., Strömbergsson, S. (2021). Measuring Intelligibility in Spontaneous Speech Using Syllables Perceived as Understood. Journal of Communication Disorders 92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomdis.2021.106108. 

Nilsson, C., Nyberg, J., Strömbergsson, S. (2021). How Are Speech Sound Disorders Perceived among Children? A Qualitative Content Analysis of Focus Group Interviews with 10–11-Year-Old Children. Child Language Teaching and Therapy.  DOI: 10.1177/0265659021995538. 

Strömbergsson, S., Edlund, J., McAllister, A., Lagerberg, T. (2021). Understanding Acceptability of Disordered Speech through Audience Response Systems-Based Evaluation. Speech Communication 131: 13–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.specom.2021.05.005. 

Strömbergsson, S., Götze, J., Edlund, J., Nilsson Björkenstam, K. (2021). Simulating Speech Error Patterns Across Languages and Different Datasets. Language and Speech. https://doi.org/10.1177/0023830920987268. 

Wikse Barrow, C., Körner, K., & Strömbergsson, S. (2021) A survey of Swedish speech-language pathologists’ practices regarding assessment of speech sound disorders, Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology, DOI: 10.1080/14015439.2021.1977383 

Bergman, A. & Hallin, AE. (2020). The effect of picture support on narrative retells in Swedish adolescents with ADHD. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 1-16. PMID: 32985272. Doi:10.1080/02699206.2020.1825816. 

Mogren, Å., Sjögreen, L., Barr-Agholme, M., McAllister, A. (2020). Orofacial function in children with speech sound disorders (SSD) persisting after the age of six years. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 526-36. DOI: 10.1080/17549507.2019.1701081 

Vidál,V., McAllister, A., DeThorne, L. (2020). Communication Profile of a Minimally Verbal School-Age Autistic Child: A Case Study. Language, Speech and Hear Serv in Schools. DOI: 10.1044/2020_LSHSS-19-00021. 

Strömbergsson S, Holm K, Edlund J, Lagerberg T, McAllister A. (2020). Audience Response System-Based Evaluation of Intelligibility of Children's Connected Speech - Validity, Reliability and Listener Differences. J Commun Disorders, Sep-Oct 2020;87:106037. doi: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2020.106037.  

Malmenholt, A., McAllister, A., Lohmander, A. (2019). Orofacial function, articulation proficiency, and intelligibility in 5-year-old children born with cleft lip and palate. The Cleft palate-craniofacial journal: official publication of the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association, 56(3):321-330. DOI: 10.1177/1055665618783154 

McAllister, A., Rantala, L., Jóhnsdóttir, V. (2019) The others are too loud. Children’s experiences and ideas related to voice, noise and communication in Nordic preschools. Front. Psychol., 21 August 2019 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01954 

Dahlgren, S-O; Sandberg, A. D.; Strömbergsson, S.; Råstam, M.; Wenhov, L.; Nettelbladt, U. (2018). Prosodic traits in speech produced by children with autism spectrum disorders - Perceptual and acoustic measurements. Autism & Developmental Language Impairments, 3, 1-10. 

McAllister A, Brodén M, Gonzalez Lindh M, Krüssenberg C, Ristic I, Rubensson A, and Sjögreen L. (2018). Oral Sensory-Motor Intervention for Children and adolescents (3-18 Years) with Developmental or Early Acquired Speech Disorders – A Review of the Literature 2000-2017. Ann Otolaryngol Rhinol, 5(5): 1221. 

Sjögreen L, Gonzalez Lindh M, Brodén M, Krüssenberg C, Ristic I, Rubensson A, McAllister A. (2018). Oral sensory-motor intervention for children and adolescents (3-18 years) with congenital or early acquired disabilities and dysphagia or impaired saliva control – a review of the literature 2000-2016. Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol. 127(12):978-985. doi: 10.1177/0003489418803963. Epub 2018 Oct 8. 

Hallin, A.E. & Reuterskiöld, C. (2018). Effects of frequency and morpho-syntactic structure on error detection, correction, and repetition in Swedish-speaking children. Applied Psycholinguistics, (early online), 1-32. Doi:10.1017/S0142716418000280. 

Wikse Barrow, C., Nilsson Björkenstam, K., & Strömbergsson, S. (2018). Subjective ratings of age-of-acquisition: Exploring issues of validity and rater reliability. Journal of Child Language, 1-15. 

Bergendal B, McAllister A. (2017). Orofacial function and monitoring of oral care in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Acta Odontol Scand. 2017;75:179-185.Epub 2017 Jan 12. 

Malmenholt, A., Lohmander, A., McAllister, A. (2017). Childhood Apraxia of Speech: a survey of knowledge and competence. Logopedics Phoniatrics, Vocology, 42:2, 84-92. 

Johansson, K., Robieux, C., Strömbergsson, S., McAllister, A. (2017). Perceptual Detection of Subtle Dysphonic Traits in Individuals with Cervical Spinal Cord Injury Using an Audience Response Systems Approach. J Voice, Jan;31(1):126.e7-126.e17 

Hallin, A.E. & Reuterskiöld, C. (2017). Error type and lexical frequency effects: Error detection in Swedish children with language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 60(10), 2924-2934. doi:10.1044/2017_JSLHR-L-16-0294 

Hallin, A.E., Garcia, G.D. & Reuterskiöld, C. (2016). The use of causal language and filled pauses in children with and without autism. Child Development Research, 2016, 1-11. doi: 10.1155/2016/8535868. 

SS
Content reviewer:
Åsa Catapano
21-12-2023