Language disorders in victims of domestic violence in children's homes

Abstract

Studies that deal with child maltreatment have become relevant during these past years. One important aspect to consider is the impact of maltreatment on the cognitive functioning and more precisely on language. Our objective is to analyze the different components in the comprehension and production of language in children victims of domestic abuse in Childreńs Homes.

Participants: The sample consists of 104 participants divided in two groups. A group of children who have just been institutionalized due to domestic abuse (VG) (Age: 8 years 2 months with a standard deviation of 1, 5 years) without previous treatment; a group of comparison (CG) made up by children who have not been victim of domestic violence (Age: 8 years 6 months with a standard deviation of 2 years and a month), with similar characteristics of gender, age and schooling.

Material: The Child Neuropsychological Assessment by Matute, Rosselli, Ardila and Ostrosky (2007) was applied. This test includes metalinguistic, oral and written comprehension and expression skills.

Results: The VG group showed low scores in all components of the analyzed language with exception to the discourse, syllable and non-word dictation compared to the CG children.

Conclusions: The alterations of the language observed in these children semantic suggest a lack of consolidation of phonological coding and a low use of code. From our findings an early language evaluation in these children can be of especial interest to apply timely intervention programs with the aim of diminishing the impact caused by domestic violence on school failure which is a frequent trait in these children.

Keywords: Child development; Domestic violence; Language alteration.