Documentation of delayed language development in Upper Egypt

Purpose: To identify the magnitude of delayed language development (DLD) cases, impairment-subtypes, and main risk factors within children referred to phoniatric and Neuropediatric Unit at Sohag University (PNUSU), Egypt. This will help in planning and implementing primary prevention strategies and in organizing public and health care awareness campaigns. Methods: It is a hospital-based descriptive study where hospital records of all cases diagnosed as a language delay presented to PNUSU from January 1st, 2015 to December, 31st, 2015 were analyzed. Results: Among 800 cases, DLD due to intellectual disability (ID) is the commonest type (34.4 %) followed by below average borderline intellectual (28.5 %). Risk factors study reveals that 66.7 % of studied children are males, 48.9 % of cases show a history of consanguineous marriage between parents and 20 % of studied children had a positive family history of language, speech, or learning problems. Perinatal and neonatal period risk factors appear most frequently as 54.3 %, and the predominant factor is Hyperbilirubinemia. Conclusion: Reported data reflect the magnitude of language disorders problem in Upper Egypt that necessitates special attention from multi-disciplines toward consanguineous marriage and neonatal Hyperbilirubinemia as both are the highest incidence within investigated cases.