Speech/Language Therapy and Psychoanalysis: two clinical approaches to ‘children who do not speak’

Abstract

Clinical cases concerning children who do not speak should be included in the Language Delay nosological category. It should be pointed out that such cases are highly heterogeneous, that is, impredictable. Moreover, it is worth noticing that those children are frequently diagnosed as ‘psychotic’ – a characterization which is not proper to Speech/Language Therapy clinic. That being the case, it seems important and necessary to raise the issue of diagnostic procedures in that field. This paper phocuses some aspects related to that clinical matter.