This problem can be overcome if the language disorders are identified before the child attains puberty, or is still in the teens.
However, it is more difficult to overcome the problem once the child is much older.
Dr. Rozaida Haji Abdul Rauf, a psycholinguistics expert from the School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), said that it is important for parents to identify the problem of language disorders as early as possible, especially before the children start schooling. This is to enable investigations into the true source of the problem.
Speaking at a press conference today, she said that it is difficult to give an accurate figure of the number of children who suffer from language disorders. However, the figure is estimated to be very large as many parents and the public are generally not aware of the problem.
“Many of us think that is is normal if children are slow to start speaking, but in many of the cases, there are many factors that contribute to the problem,” she said.
She added that medical officers, especially those who have just joined the service and who are inexperienced in this field sometimes fail to identify specific language disorders and their true cause. The problem therefore is not detected early, and consequently, treatment for the problem is received much later.
Thus, Dr. Rozaida, and four other USM researchers, that is, Prof. Dr. Ruslan Rainis, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tajuddin Khader, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Shukri Sulaiman and Mr.Tan Hock Thye have combined their expertise in the field of psycholinguistics with ICT to produce a software programme that contains two components. These components are the ‘Clinical Linguistic Decision Support System for the Differential Diagnosis of Child Language Disorders’ and the ‘Digital Brain Atlas - DBA’, a digital tool that can help to accurately identify language disorders and the source of these problems.
Prof. Ruslan Rainis, said that this software was developed based on knowledge and digital imaging to help medical officers identify the source of language disorders among children. Prof. Ruslan is an expert in the field of Geographical Information System (GIS) and has an extensive background in developing the software for the decision support system.
The software is capable of providing a quick and accurate diagnosis of the problem and is based on the knowledge of experts in the relevant fields.
The first of its kind in the world, this software is important to help society overcome language disorders and at the same time allow for early treatment. Besides, it saves on medical and treatment costs.
Normally, language disorders are linked to those with Down’s Syndrome or those suffering from a cleft palate. However, there are many other language disorders that need to be identified.
“It can be linked to cognitive problems, physical and other conditions which have an impact on comprehension, speech production as well as language acquisition and others,” explained Dr. Rozaida.
According to Prof. Ruslan, the software was designed using ’Artificial Neural Network’. It identifies the source of the language disorder based on data from 100 symptoms and 30 diagnostic tests and has the capacity to provide accurate decisions in determining the language disorder.
Apart from helping doctors make an accurate diagnosis, this software also acts as a teaching aid to enhance the diagnostic skills of doctors. The software is also designed not only to help increase our understanding of language disorders among children but also to improve on the methodology to diagnose and treat these children.
With the use of this software, it is possible to ensure that all early symptoms of the patient can be assessed before arriving at a final diagnosis. In addition, it will reduce the risks of a wrong diagnosis and late treatment of the problem.
Clinical data obtained from 30 children who were referred to a hospital indicated that with the use of the software, there was a 100 % success rate in identifying language disorders. This was in contrast to the 13.3 % success rate obtained from preliminary analysis by medical officers who did not use the software.
According to Prof. Ruslan, the research team is planning to commercialise the product very soon in view of the fact that the private sector has shown interest in marketing the product.
“We also hope to encourage the hospitals and clinics to use the software so that it would benefit the public.
The research, conducted over 23 months, from December 2006 until November 2008 was funded by an e-science grant of RM186, 993.00.
“As academicians, we are prepared to provide assistance to those who need help using this software. However, they still need to refer to a specialist,” said Dr. Rozaida in response to a question from a reporter during the press conference.
