Specific Language Impairment and Language Delay: an Analysis of Developmental Language Disorder Characteristics in a Group of Romanian Children

Abstract

Introduction: Although specific language impairment (SLI) or developmental language disorder (DLD) and language delay (LD) are fairly well documented language disorders, the specificity for Romanian children has not been clearly highlighted. Methods: EF were measured with the Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Functions (BRIEF), and social and academic competences were measured with the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS). The sample for this study consisted of 44 adolescents with mild intellectual disability aged 15-18 years old (mean age 16.7 years, SD- 1.4). Objectives: This study aims to identify the common and differential elements of the DLD (SLI) and LD through a quantitative and qualitative analysis. Methods: We considered two groups of children: one diagnosed with DLD (n = 67) and another with LD (n = 57), aged 3 to 12 years (M age = 5 years 8 months). Tests for establishing the language psychological age and the active and passive vocabulary, recording the phonetic inventory and language sample analysis (LSA) for qualitative observations were used as analysis tools. These instruments proved to be useful in establishing the specificity of each disorder and formulating the prognosis. Results: A statistical analysis (Student’s t test) was conducted in order to compare the children in LD and DLD groups. The data obtained from this analysis along with LSA indicate that the language skills differ between the two groups in the following aspects: lexical, pragmatic, semantic, syntactic, morphological and phonological. Significant differences (p < .05) occur for the start of speech therapy age, phonological disorder, passive vocabulary and language psychological age. Results for active vocabulary did not indicate a statistical difference between LD and DLD children. Conclusions: The characteristics of DLD and LD were noted in this study. These language disorders have specific markers, which imply differentiated measures, from the diagnosis phase to the construction of the remediation plan. The study is a prospective one, this issue being the subject for further exhaustive approaches.