Developmental Language Disorder

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the subgroup of children with unexpected and unexplained language disorder. It describes the term “developmental language disorder” (DLD) to refer to these children, acknowledging that the research and draw on frequently has referred to them as having specific language impairments. The interest in the grammatical abilities of children with DLD that set them apart from typically developing age mates dates back to some of the earliest studies of DLD. Evidence for a qualitative difference required that the children with DLD be different from children who are presumably at the same point in development. The utility of sentence imitation in the diagnosis of DLD came from an early study searching for indicators of DLD in adults. All the body of work in developmental psychology can apply to these children, and the insights from research on DLD should also apply and inform thinking in developmental psychology.