An Insidious Interstice: Understanding Cognition and Language Behaviour Through the Eyes of Juvenile Justice Professionals

Introduction Despite evidence suggesting language and cognition deficits are prevalent for justice involved youth, little research explores how juvenile justice personnel experience language and cognition behaviours in the youth they serve. Aims This qualitative study explored how juvenile justice personnel understand language and cognition skills and deficits in justice involved youth. Methods Twenty-two U.S. juvenile justice professionals participated in individual, semi-structured interviews. Questions focused on individual understanding of receptive language, expressive language, social communication, and cognition (i.e., problem-solving, predicting consequences and impulsiveness) in juveniles served. Using a phenomenological lens, transcripts were coded identifying themes and sub-themes of participant responses. Results Most participants experience language and cognition as elusive skills. Juvenile justice personnel understand what language and cognition mean but may not be translating that meaning into practice when assessing observable behaviours. Specifically, participants interpreted behaviours consistent with language and cognition deficits as behavioural concerns, mental health challenges, academic deficits, and as a function of external factors (adults and community). Conclusions The results of this study suggest the language and cognition skills of JIY are the absent and undertreated connection between trauma-school- behavioural health and juvenile justice system involvement. Speech-language pathologists and juvenile justice personnel would benefit from mutually understanding the complexities and importance of the communication demands and language and cognition skills for justice involved youth.