What is DLD?

​The University at Buffalo Language Learning Lab, directed by Dr. Hendricks, is dedicated to research and instruction to better understand language learning among school-age children. Our goal is to improve the identification and treatment of DLD in order to improve outcomes for this critical population. 

Consequences of untreated DLD include lower educational outcomes (Catts et al., 2002), increased risk for unemployment (Conti-Ramsden & Durkin, 2012), and increased risk for anxiety and depression (Conti-Ramsden & Botting, 2008). 

As many as 70% of school-age children with language disorders--including DLD--are not identified or given services to address their difficulties with language comprehension and production (Adlof et al., 2017; Tomblin et al., 1997).

Diagnosis of DLD among children who speak Non-Mainstream American English (NMAE) dialects is particularly problematic, and both under-identification (Seymour, Bland-Stewart, & Green, 1998) and over-identification (Morgan et al., 2015, 2016) are common. These misdiagnoses create a serious problem of potentially misallocated treatment resources. Children who are over-identified utilize clinician resources and may waste time completing unnecessary intervention activities. Further, misdiagnosing language variation as disordered may contribute to the social stigma against the use of NMAE dialects. Children who are under-identified do not receive interventions that would improve their academic progress.