What is Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)?

Say the words “dyslexia”, “autism”, or “ADHD”, and most people will have a reasonable idea of what you are talking about. But say the words “Developmental Language Disorder” to a random member of the public, and you’re likely to be met with a blank stare. Despite international efforts to raise awareness, understanding of the condition remains low amongst healthcare and educational professionals, and it’s even lower amongst the general public (RCSLT, 2023).

Yet 2 children in every class of 30 are likely to have language difficulties severe enough to affect their academic progress (Norbury et al, 2016). These children may struggle to follow their teachers’ instructions, to understand what’s going on in their lessons, to find the right words, to communicate their thoughts verbally and in writing, or to socialize with peers.

As young children, they may have been “late talkers” (although just as many were not…) and they may have been slow to combine words into sentences. Errors that typically go away, such as over-regularisation of the past tense, or missing off the third person singular marker may persist. Growing older, many continue to make the grammatical errors and present with the language skills of much younger children.

For some, their difficulties are only noticed later on, perhaps as they begin to struggle in primary, or secondary school. In addition to the difficulties mentioned above, these students may find it hard to formulate complex and compound sentences containing a range of conjunctions, to understand connected text, and to complete assignments. They are likely to go on to become adults unable to communicate with accuracy, clarity and efficiency (ACE) (Nippold, 2023).

The consequences of not receiving support are well documented. Students with language disorders find it harder to access the curriculum, to form friendships and to follow the unspoken routines of school. Many will experience a growing sense of frustration at being unable to communicate and understand, and they are more likely to suffer from low self-esteem (Nelson, 1998).

Some students respond by “acting out” and causing disruption in their lessons, perhaps to avoid the work that they find increasingly difficult, or to avoid being seen as “stupid”; others respond by shutting down, sitting quietly at the back with no clue what is going on. Many will find themselves labelled as “naughty” or “lazy” as a result, and these students tend to be in trouble frequently at school. Many will experience school failure (Nelson, 1998).

As adults entering the workforce with fewer qualifications, personal resources and often associated reading and writing difficulties, many will find themselves unemployed or underemployed (Larson and McKinley, 2003). They are at greater risk of mental health difficulties (Nippold, 2018), and even juvenile offending (Larson and McKinley, 2003).

I wanted to paint a picture of what language disorders can look like above. But so far, we have only discussed the surface level symptoms. We haven’t said what they are. So, then, what causes language disorders, what is going on underneath, and how should we define them? I felt that there were too many facets of the topic to deal with in one blog post, so I decided to write a series of posts.

To find out what causes language disorders, please see my next post: https://secondaryschoolslt.wordpress.com/2026/01/05/what-causes-language-disorders/

Notes

Larson, V.L. and McKinley, N.L. (2003) Communication solutions for older students. Thinking Pub. 

Nelson, N. W. (1998) Childhood Language Disorders in Context: Infancy Through Adolescence. 2nd edn. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Nippold, Marilyn A. “The Literate Lexicon in Adolescents: Monitoring the Use and Understanding of Morphologically Complex Words.” Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 49, no. 4 (October 2018): 718–30.

Nippold, M.A. (2023). Grammar guide for speech-language pathologists: Steps to analyzing complex syntax. San Diego: Plural Publishing.

Norbury, C.F., Gooch, D., Wray, C., Baird, G., Charman, T., Simonoff, E., Vamvakas, G., & Pickles, A. ​ (2016). ​ The impact of nonverbal ability on prevalence and clinical presentation of language disorder: evidence from a population study. ​ Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 57(11), pp. 1247–1257.

Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT). “A Vision for Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) for the UK” London: RCSLT, 2023. https://www.rcslt.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/A-Vision-for-Developmental-Language-Disorder.pdf.