Language is the foundation for individual and societal well-being. Although many children learn language effortlessly, two out of 30 students in a classroom struggle with language development without a known biomedical cause. This condition is known as developmental language disorder (DLD). DLD affects 5.8 million children across Europe and has long-term detrimental effects on academic performance, social-emotional well-being, and employment opportunities for those affected. In addition to the individuals with DLD, their families and society are burdened by these challenges, which are unfairly distributed as many of those with DLD come from disadvantaged backgrounds. This raises public health concerns and hence invokes public health/preventative intervention models. 

Despite the public health concerns and long-term adverse consequences associated with DLD, it remains an unstudied and relatively unknown disorder. It is urgent that we develop more sensitive diagnostic tools and preventative interventions for individuals with DLD. By using the Finnish Birth Cohorts 1987 and 1997, DLD-Prevention and Intervention (DLD-PI) aims to identify important risk and protective factors for DLD, develop a risk prediction algorithm for identifying preschoolers at risk of DLD, and determine significant risk and protective factors associated with life outcomes.  DLD-PI serves the key objectives of Horizon 2020: excellent science and tackling societal challenges. DLD-PI aims to have a wide impact as they enable better prediction of individual trajectories and outcomes of DLD. In addition to raising public awareness of DLD, this proposal is expected to maximize efficiency in targeting and timing preventative interventions for DLD, affecting multiple stakeholders (clinicians, educators, policy makers, and the public).