This video from Ireland's National Council for Special Education outlines what DLD is and provides useful information. Click on the button below to access the video. 

Downloadable PDF - What is DLD?

Information adapted from Afasic, NIH and Routledge

Developmental language disorder (DLD)

DLD is a neurodevelopmental disorder. 

• Some children may have additional diagnoses alongside DLD, such as ADHD or dyslexia. 

• A young child with DLD may also struggle with attention, behavior, executive functioning, peer problems, motor skills, social interaction and emotional difficulties. 

• All of these factors must be considered when engaging and guiding those with DLD.

Developmental language disorder (DLD) presents as:

• Slower development of talking and understanding that:

  • Interferes with everyday life and school learning

  • Is not due to:

    •  hearing loss

    • acquired brain injury

    • physical abnormality

    • autistic spectrum disorder or 

    • rare syndrome

DLD is largely an exclusionary diagnosis i.e. all other possible explanations for the child’s language issues (such as hearing impairment or autism) must first be ruled out. 

Signs of DLD in children:

• Doesn’t talk very much

• Uses immature language

• Struggles to find the right words 

• Doesn’t seem to understand other people

All too often, a language difficulty is the last thing parents and teachers consider. 

The low profile of DLD and other forms of SLCN means that parents and professionals tend to focus on more obvious problems the child may have, such as shyness, anxiety, reading difficulties or a behavioural issue.

DLD and Multilingualism

• Learning more than one language at a time does not cause DLD. 

• The disorder can, however, affect both multilingual children and monolingual children (children who speak only one language). 

• For multilingual children, DLD will impact all languages spoken by a child. Importantly, learning multiple languages is not harmful for a child with DLD. 

• A multilingual child with DLD will not struggle more than a monolingual child with DLD.

The poster from Afasic below gives a useful summary of speech and language development milestones in the early years. This is helpful when considering whether a student is presenting with difficulties. Click the top right corner to download a PDF version.