The Prevalence of Specific Language Impairment in 6-Year-Old Persian-Speaking Children in Shiraz City, Iran, 2015

A child with a language impairment in the absence of significant sensory, psychiatric, neurological, or intellectual disorders should be diagnosed as having a specific language impairment (SLI). Data regarding the prevalence of SLI are rare and vary widely. A number of studies have been conducted in order to determine the prevalence of SLI in different populations. However, the prevalence of child language disorders in an Iranian population is unknown due to the limited epidemiologic studies in the field. In addition, many studies have found that children with SLI are at risk for social, behavioral, emotional, and educational difficulties. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of specific language impairment in 6-year-old Persian-speaking children. This research was an epidemiological study conducted over a three-month period in the summer of 2015 in Shiraz. The sample size was 180 children aged 6 years that included 95 boys and 85 girls who were recruited from 10 preschool centers in 9 urban areas in Shiraz using stratified sampling. The EpiSLI system was used to diagnose SLI. The Persian version of the test of language development (TOLD-P: 3) was employed to evaluate the children’s oral language skills. A number of descriptive statistics was employed, such as rates, mean, and standard deviation. In addition, the Chi-square test was used to analyze the correlation between the prevalence of SLI with sex and area at a significance level of 0.05. This study estimated the prevalence of SLI in 6-year-old Persian-speaking children to be 2.7%. In addition, the estimated prevalence rates of SLI in boys and girls were 2% and 3.5%, respectively. Also, there was no significant correlation between the estimated prevalence of SLI with sex and area (P > 0.05). According to the findings of this study, 2.7% of the 6-year-old Persian-speaking children living in urban areas of Shiraz and enrolling at preschool centers have a specific language impairment. Therefore, it is important to employ a screening system to identify these preschool children in order to prevent subsequent problems in school-aged children.