STEPHEN PARSONS, SPEECH AND LANGUAGE THERAPIST, THINKING TALKING, UK
Setting the scene
Spoken language is the lifeblood of the classroom. It is how students engage with learning and form social relationships. It has direct impacts on literacy, learning, social relationships and mental wellbeing. Students who face ongoing challenges with spoken language may meet the criteria for a condition called developmental language disorder (DLD).
This guide explains what DLD is, how it presents and everyday strategies that can be employed to support students with DLD.
What do teachers need to know?
Developmental language disorder (DLD) is a neurodevelopmental condition that impacts on understanding and using words and sentences. It is a type of speech, language and communication need (SLCN), but it is not a delay. It is not something that children grow out of. DLD is a difference in how the brain processes language. As a brain-based difference, it exists in every language and in multilingual learners.
DLD may feel like the new kid on the neurodivergence block, but it has always been with us. It is just that the framing of how we think about it has changed. In 2016, an international consensus was reached about the new term and its definition (Bishop et al., 2017).
Every teacher will have taught a student with DLD. Population studies show that it is considerably more common than autism (Norbury et al., 2017). An incidence rate of 7.6 per cent for DLD equates to two students in a class of 30. The issue is that many students will have either not been identified or been misidentified.
For students whose DLD is not identified, there may be significant impacts on literacy and learning (Botting, 2020). Researchers have found that two-thirds of students with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs have unidentified DLD (Hollo et al., 2014).
DLD can be hard to spot. Some students with DLD talk a lot, but the difference will be in the quality of what they say. For instance, they may have a more limited vocabulary, have difficulties finding the right words or use short, simple sentences. Even harder to spot are difficulties with understanding, particularly in students who employ masking strategies such as watching what others do (Hobson and Lee, 2023).
But everything changes when the DLD learner’s needs are identified and well supported. Just because DLD is a lifelong condition, that does not mean that students cannot progress and thrive. Diagnosis requires detailed assessment, most frequently conducted by a speech and language therapist. The amount of specialist support will vary according to need, but in-class strategies are crucial for all with DLD.
Action points for teachers
Every student with DLD will vary in their individual profile, so it is necessary to get to know each learner, but there are some general strategies that are likely to be beneficial for most with DLD. In addition, while specifically targeted at students with DLD, these strategies will benefit all learners.
A key area of need for students with DLD is understanding spoken language. Key strategies to support understanding are:
- Pause between sentences to allow extra processing time. This can feel like a luxury in a busy lesson, but it will help more students to understand the first time, so it may save time overall.
- Think multisensory. Use visuals such as images, diagrams and video to support understanding, but also objects where possible.
- Build strong routines that become habitual to reduce cognitive load and thus increase capacity for new learning.
- Check understanding using reflective tasks such as ‘tell me what you need to do’ or ‘explain to me what you know about this topic’. Avoid ‘do you understand?’ because the most likely answer will be ‘yes’, even when the student has not understood.
The other key area of need is expressive language. Most simply, in order to develop expressive language, students with DLD require extra time structure and practice opportunities.
Students with DLD benefit from increased opportunities for learning language such as these:
- Explicitly teach language, including vocabulary, sentence structure and narrative
- Make use of multisensory approaches, including images and objects
- Structure small-group talk using visuals, sentence starters and allocated roles.
DLD makes many aspects of daily school life more challenging. Even breaktimes can be overwhelming, as they include talk and social interactions. Building a strong relationship with students with DLD and acknowledging the effort that they are making will help to mitigate the impacts on mental health.
Top tips
- DLD is common, so every teacher needs to know about it.
- Because DLD is not always obvious, we need to go looking for it. When a student is not making the expected progress with literacy and learning or is facing challenges with relationships, consider their spoken language skills, including understanding.
- While there is no cure for DLD, simple everyday strategies can help students with DLD to thrive.
Want to know more?
- The interactive DLD Bubble Toolkit resource (in Welsh and English) breaks down DLD into its component parts but also provides more detailed strategies: www.naplic.org.uk/resource/dld-bubble-toolkit
- The Raising Awareness of DLD campaign (RADLD) has information about DLD but also details and resources for raising awareness: https://radld.org
- This video explains DLD clearly and succinctly, made by a young woman with DLD: https://youtu.be/rwOfkj0dj_0?si=uGP_Gst-gZFoBkVP
- NAPLIC is the UK organisation for professionals who work with children and young people with DLD: www.naplic.org.uk/resource/developmental-language-disorder
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