DLD poster

developmental language disorder

She's being lazy

He's just quiet

Why doesn't he pay attention?

Sound familiar?

I'm always repeating myself

She disrupts the class

What is DLD?

Children may have difficulties with:

DLD is a neurodevelopmental condition which means you have significant difficulties with understanding and using spoken language

• following instructions
• learning new words
• auditory memory
• constructing sentences
• telling stories
• friendships

DLD can have an impact on literacy and maths (Snowling et al, 2021), emotional & mental health (Eadie et aI, 2018) and behaviour (Maggio et al, 2014;)

7.58% of children have DLD That's 2 in your class

What does it look like?

• muddled or immature sentences
• forgetting information
• slow or no response
• inappropriate answers
• misunderstandings
• frustration, avoidance or withdrawal

(Norbury et al, 2016)

How can i support children with dld?

Attention

• say their name
• make eye contact

Show them

• use visuals to support
• demonstrate

Language

• use short, simple sentences
• give explicit instructions
• check understanding

Vocabulary

• teach new words
• reuse and highlight key words

Time

• allow extra time for processing and responding

Model

• recast and model sentences
• repeat key points and summarise