Parent and Child Characteristics Impacting Identification of Children With Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)

Purpose: Previous research has shown that children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and dyslexia are under-identified in the general population. Parent or caregiver concern is a primary referral tool for these conditions, but may fail to accurately align with the actual presence of a disorder. The purpose of this study was to examine child and parent characteristics related to a child’s likelihood of receiving a diagnosis of DLD. Methods: Within a large, 5-year, longitudinal study, kindergartener performance on a battery of speech, language, and literacy measures was examined to identify children with and without DLD and possible risk of dyslexia. Background information on caregivers, including overall concerns on their child’s development, caregiver education level(s), and family socioeconomic status (SES) were collected through an intake questionnaire. A Pearson correlational analysis was conducted to identify any relationships such as the association between children’s language-literacy levels and caregiver concerns. Results: For children with DLD and/or dyslexia, caregiver concern was significantly associated with readily observed developmental skills such as expressive language and word reading abilities. Caregiver concern, however, was not related to children’s receptive language skills. Insufficient data was available to explore associations between caregiver education levels or family SES and likelihood of receiving a referral for DLD. Conclusions: Children who experience DLD and dyslexia may be under-identified due to referral practices that fail to accurately identify many children with language and literacy deficits. Because caregiver concern was unable to accurately identify all children with DLD and risk for dyslexia, updated screening and diagnostic procedures are needed to help more children get access to needed services.