How large is the population of children with speech and language deficits?
Very large. The numbers are frightening and growing at epidemic rates. Accurate tallies are hard to reach because many of the individuals fit more than one reporting category and would therefore be counted more than once. However, we do know this: If we look at the figures for autism alone, we know that there are over 500,000 persons with autism in the U.S. (more than 18 thousand in New Jersey alone). Nationwide, the current incidence is one in every 150 births. According to data gathered from the U.S. Department of Education, the number of autistic children has grown over 900 percent since 1992. Therefore, if we add to these figures all those children who are apraxic without autism, or the many thousands who have other neurological problems leading to speech and language deficits, we are clearly talking about staggering figures.
