Abstract
According to the literature children with language disorders often encounter a high degree of emotional/ behavioural problems and social difficulties. This study examined the existence of these psychological problems in language disordered children attending language units. Relationships between language disorders and emotional/behavioural problems, social acceptance and peer acceptance were investigated in 63 language disordered children using the Achenbach Child Behaviour Checklist, Achenbach Teacher Form, Harter Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence Child Communication Checklist and Test for the Reception of Grammar. The participants were asked to rate their own level of acceptance and competence. The hypotheses were that the language-disordered children would have more psychological problems and view themselves as less socially competent and accepted by their peers than children in the normal population. The results demonstrated that the language-disordered children in this study did not have higher behavioural problem scores than normal children. However, there was some evidence to suggest that when individual problem scales were analysed that these children did have higher scores on the Withdrawn, Social and Thought problem scales. Contrary to predictions, no significant differences were found between the participant’s scores on the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence compared with that of the standardised group. The overall positive, perceived view of the participants and relatively low behavioural problem scores may be related to the positive experience of being in a language unit. Possible reasons for the non-significant findings are discussed together with criticisms of the present study.