A scoping review of oral language and social communication abilities in children with Tourette syndrome
Authors: Feehan Angela , Charest Monique 
Published: September 2023

Background

Children with Tourette syndrome (TS) have historically experienced problems in academic and social settings, yet their language and communication abilities have not been extensively researched.

Aims

This scoping review maps the literature on the oral language and social communication abilities of children with TS in order to describe the nature of the current literature, present a summary of major findings and identify where gaps exist.

Methods

A scoping review was completed to identify studies measuring the oral language or social communication abilities of children with TS. A systematic search of six electronic databases was conducted to obtain published and unpublished literature. All English studies measuring the oral language or social communication abilities of children with TS were included. Information was extracted from records and knowledge was synthesised in a narrative summary.

Main Contribution

We identified 56 records for inclusion. Almost all records were located in journals within the fields of psychology and psychiatry. Skills most often studied were verbal IQ and verbal fluency. The literature suggests an increased prevalence of language disorders and social communication problems in children with TS; however, literature comprehensively detailing these challenges was scarce. Language strengths were identified in verbal intelligence, story/sentence recall, categorisation and performance on tasks at the single‐word level.

Conclusions

Oral language and social communication skills are important for academic and social success. This review brings scattered literature together to provide up‐to‐date information about language in children with TS and highlights that there are considerable gaps in our knowledge about language and communication in this population. This scoping review can inform future research and support speech language pathologists in the assessment of young people with TS.

WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS

What is already known on the subject

Speech‐language pathologists (SLPs) working in various contexts (e.g., schools, mental health teams) are likely to encounter children with Tourette syndrome (TS); however, the description of this population and potential communication characteristics is not well represented in the SLP literature. Previous literature reviews have reported strengths in verbal fluency and morphological processing. Challenges in expressive language, higher order language, social cognition and a propensity towards autistic traits have also been identified.

What this paper adds to existing knowledge

This review differs from previous narrative reviews by employing a systematic approach to searching for literature. As a result, we identified 25 additional studies that had not been cited in previous reviews and additional relevant findings in 23 previously reviewed studies. This review confirms several previous conclusions about language in children with TS and extends or clarifies several others, thereby providing the most current information on oral language and social communication abilities. The use of current taxonomies of language and social communication helps to organise this literature for clinicians and researchers in speech‐language pathology and identifies a need for further research from the SLP perspective.

What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?

These results imply that SLPs should screen children with TS for language disorders and investigate social communication and social interaction development. Clinicians can expect greater challenges in language and communication development for children with complex forms of TS (i.e., those who exhibit co‐occurring conditions such as attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder). The multidisciplinary nature of the current literature implies that clinical collaboration with other disciplines will be of particular benefit to serving this group of children.