Journal Article

How We Fail Children With Developmental Language Disorder

McGregor, Karla K.

2020

Overview

Purpose: For over two decades, we have known that children with developmental language disorder (DLD) are underserved. We have also known that DLD does not attract the research attention that it merits given its prevalence and impact. The purposes of this clinical focus article are to present evidence that these failures continue, explore the reasons behind these failures, and propose solutions. Method: I reviewed the literature and applied bibliometric analysis procedures from Bishop (2010) to quantify research efforts aimed at DLD compared to other neurodevelopmental disorders. Results: The percentage of children who are deemed eligible for clinical services because of DLD continues to fall well short of estimates based on the prevalence of DLD in community samples. The amount of research conducted on DLD relative to other neurodevelopmental disorders remains low. Contributing factors include a lack of awareness of DLD, the hidden nature of DLD, entrenched policies, and the dissonance created when speech-language pathologists must diagnose DLD in school settings. Conclusions: Expanded approaches to supporting children with DLD are required. These might include engagement in advocacy and awareness campaigns; clearer communication with the families we serve and enhanced collaborations with classroom teachers; the implementation of school-based language screenings; participation in policymaking; and the development of service delivery models that operate alongside those that exist in our schools and complement their function.

• Publisher: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
• Subject: Access to Education / Access to Information / Achievement tests / Advocacy / Allied Health Personnel / At Risk Students / Attention / Barriers / Behavior / Behavior Problems / Bibliometrics / Care and treatment / Child / Child Language / Childhood language disorders / Children / Children & youth / Citations / Classroom communication / Classrooms / Clinical Focus / Clinical medicine / Developmental Disabilities / Disability Identification / Disorders / Educational Needs / Educational Policy / Ethnicity / Female / Gender Bias / Geographic Location / Geography / Grade 1 / Health care disparities / Health Status Disparities / Hispanic Americans / Humans / Individualized Education Programs / Individualized Instruction / Kindergarten / Language / Language Development Disorders - diagnosis / Language Development Disorders - ethnology / Language Development Disorders - rehabilitation / Language disorders / Language Impairments / Language Tests / Learning disorders / Male / Medical screening / Medically underserved populations / Minority & ethnic groups / Minority Group Students / Minority Groups / Neurodevelopmental disorders / Parent Participation / Pediatric research / Policy making / Preschool education / Racial Bias / Regression Analysis / Schools / Screening Tests / Sex Factors / Social Bias / Socioeconomic Influences / Special Needs Students / Speech / Speech Language Pathology / Speech therapists / Speech therapy / Speech-language pathologists / Speech-Language Pathology - methods / Teachers / Teaching Methods / United Kingdom / United States / Young Children