Language abilities of children treated for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: Preliminary findings

The language abilities of a group of nine children (aged between 11 years, 5 months and 17 years, 9 months) treated at least 4 years previously for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) were investigated and compared with those of a group of non-neurologically impaired, age- and sex-matched controls. The language test battery included: an age-appropriate measure from the Test of Language Development (TOLD) series comprised of either the Test of Adolescent Language (TOAL-2) or the Test of Language Development-Intermediate (TOLD-I); the timed subtests of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Function (CELF); the Boston Naming Test; and one of either the Token Test or Token Test for Children depending on the age of the subject. As a group the leukaemia subjects performed significantly worse than the controls on the TOAL-2, CELF and Boston Naming Test. Individually, the leukaemia subjects varied in their performance on the language measures. Overall, the linguistic deficits were mild. It is recommended that the language development of children treated for ALL be monitored by a speech/language pathologist.