The Basics of Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)
What is DLD?
Developmental language disorder, or DLD, is a term used to describe people who have difficulty understanding and using language through both spoken and written communication. It is a lifelong disorder that impacts individuals both socially and academically. According to DLDandme.org, DLD is 50 times more prevalent than hearing impairment and five times more prevalent than autism! DLD affects about 2 students in every classroom, or about 7 percent of the population.
Every person with DLD has different strengths and weaknesses. When we think about language, we are thinking about the form (speech sounds, grammatical units, and sentence structure), content (the meaning of the words we use), and use (the way we adhere to social communication rules). Your child may have difficulty with understanding and using word endings like past tense -ed, or plural -s or -es, or perhaps your child has difficulty using auxiliary verbs like has, is, was, are or pronouns like he, she, him, her. While these errors might be common in young children, a child with DLD will continue to have errors past the time when their peers have stopped producing errors. An older child with DLD might have difficulty with understanding what they are reading or with writing age appropriate texts.
DLD can also co-occur with other disorders like ADHD or dyslexia, and it can be hard to recognize. Children with DLD do not make highly unusual errors in their communication, but the errors they make resemble the errors of a typically developing, younger child. A child with DLD learns language more slowly and has difficulty learning language rules. Although DLD is a lifelong disorder, children will make progress, so their weaknesses will change as they grow.
Although DLD is very common, many people are unfamiliar with what DLD is. There are several reasons for this. DLD is hard to recognize because the errors resemble those of younger children, and comorbidities, like ADHD, can make it even more challenging. There are also a variety of terms that might be used to describe DLD, which vary across locations. In schools, you might see “Speech or Language Impairment,” “Specific Learning Disability,” or “Developmental Delay.” In private clinics, you might see “Mixed Receptive and Expressive Language Disorder” or “Expressive Language Disorder.” It is understandable that people are unfamiliar with DLD given the number of terms used. For more information on this, please check out this article on recognizing DLD and this article on the various terms from the folks over at DLD and Me.
Learning that your child has DLD can be difficult for families. However, this news provides your family with a roadmap for how to best support your child’s academic and social development. If you are concerned that your child might have a developmental language disorder, reach out to us or a speech-language pathologist in your area for more support.
References
Archibald, L. (2019, October 07). Why is DLD Hard to Recognize? Retrieved December 13, 2020, from https://dldandme.org/recognizing-dld/
Bloom, L., & Lahey, M. (1978). Language development and language disorders.
Hogan, T. (2020, November 04). The Many Terms Used for DLD. Retrieved December 13, 2020, from https://dldandme.org/terminology/
Language In Brief. (n.d.). Retrieved December 13, 2020, from https://www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/spoken-language-disorders/language-in-brief/