Understanding language and using it to express thoughts and feelings are two of the most crucial milestones in a child’s life. While children tend to develop new skills at different paces, most hit these milestones at their expected ages. But when a child’s language skills consistently fall behind his or her peers, it may be due to a developmental language disorder.

A developmental language disorder (DLD) refers to language development problems in young children that persist even well into their school years and adulthood. It is a brain difference that makes it difficult for children to process and use language, whether in oral or written form.

Children with DLD have trouble with using words and sentences to express meanings, thoughts, and feelings. They are also likely to struggle with understanding and processing words (receptive language/auditory comprehension) that they hear or read. This is also known as mixed receptive-expressive language disorder or what researchers call specific language impairment.

[Know more about specific language impairment.]

The exact causes for a DLD are not entirely known, but research suggests that a DLD is heavily influenced by genetic factors. Children with developmental language disorder or specific language impairment struggle with social interactions, home life, and school performance. According to DLDandme.org, DLD affects up to two children in every classroom and is five times more common than autism spectrum disorder.

A DLD can occur even without developmental disorders, intellectual disability, or other biomedical conditions. However, children with DLD are likely to be at-risk for co-occurring conditions like autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), motor deficit, reading disorders, speech sound disorders, and social, emotional, and behavioral issues. Read SPELLTalk questions and answers about the language literacy network– which represents normal reading and writing processes.

[Read about Early Childhood Developmental Milestones.]

Areas That a DLD Affects

Children with DLD develop vocabulary and grammar at a much slower pace than their peers. Aside from these, a DLD can also affect other aspects of speech and language at varying degrees, including:

A child who shows signs of having a DLD or language impairment can undergo an assessment by a speech-language pathologist (SLP) either privately or through the school or local school district.

The signs of a language impairment or disorder are often hard to detect, more so in the absence of co-occurring issues such as autism, hearing loss, or genetic conditions like Down syndrome. If a child exhibits the following symptoms, a DLD assessment should be considered.

During the evaluation process, an SLP will assess the child’s interest in communicating. Some speech-language pathologists are experts working with early childhood development whereas other SLPs work with the school-age population.  An SLP will observe how understandable the child’s expressive language is as well as his or her ability to understand words and sentences. A typical evaluation consists of the following steps:

1. Interviewing the child’s parents, caregiver, and teacher to document the child’s family, health, and academic history. The SLP will ask about their own concerns and observations of the child’s strengths and weaknesses when communicating.
2. Observing the child during conversation or storytelling and noting pronunciation problems, finding the right words, building grammatically correct sentences, and other relevant information.
3. Taking a series of standardized tests to compare the child’s speech, language, and overall communication with expected levels for his or her age.

Like other related language communication disorders, a DLD is a lifelong condition that cannot be permanently cured. But with the help of a speech-language pathologist, the child can learn strategies and techniques to help manage the condition.

After a diagnosis of DLD, the SLP will conduct further analysis and observations before creating an individualized program. The methods and strategies can vary from child to child, depending on their strengths and weaknesses. Eliciting, modeling, and scaffolding that target linguistic features through specific modalities, e.g. expressive, listening, reading, writing,  is how a licensed language therapist/pathologist models, teaches and reinforces aspects of language that need addressing. This includes sounds, vocabulary, grammatical structures, and social use.

In younger children, therapy is typically interwoven into natural communication, such as conversation and play! For older children, interventions are typically embedded in the school curriculum or within literacy activities. It is also essential to have parents and teachers involved in the process, as learning must happen outside of the language therapists’ sessions!

Know more about developmental language disorders:

Raising Awareness of Developmental Language Disorder (RADLD) – Helpful resources that explain what a DLD is, its impact, and how to help raise awareness on the condition.

The Universal Indicators of Developmental Language Disorders: A Checklist for SLPs– The Universal Indicators of DLD Checklist.

Language Disorders in Children and Adolescents, by Dr. Joseph Beitchman and Dr. E.B. Brownlie, report that approximately 50% of language-based learning challenges go undiagnosed.