Revista de patología y terapia del habla

Abstracto

Health Care Professionals' Awareness of Language Delay in Sohag, Upper Egypt

Eman Mostafa

Aims: To investigate the health care professionals' awareness of Delayed Language Development (DLD) in children in Sohag, Upper Egypt.

Methods: A cross sectional survey of medical doctors, dentists, pharmacists, and paramedical staff employed in three public health care facilities were asked to fill in a questionnaire. The questionnaire addresses knowledge and attitudes towards DLD.

Results: The main source of knowledge was relatives and acquaintances. Most of the participants advised a parent of a two-year-old child with DLD not to wait and seek medical advice. They thought that the best management of DLD is language training.

Conclusion: This survey may provide insights that can raise awareness among health care professionals and help in the treatment of children with DLD with greater competence. It also emphasizes the need for increasing education of future health care professionals through putting a course of speech pathology field in the curricula of medical schools which could prove to be particularly effective.