Opinion: Developmental language disorder - what you need to know

In honour of DLD Awareness Day, Professor Courtenay Norbury (UCL Psychology & Language Sciences) and her colleague explain the challenges facing children with developmental language disorder and calls for teachers and schools to use more techniques to help pupils. Tom is in Year 6 and has developmental language disorder, or DLD. He is described as being a caring child with a real sense of fun, but school staff and his family have concerns about his progress in learning and worry about how he will cope when he transfers to secondary school. Tom has a poor perception of himself as a learner and struggles to see that he can be successful. He often finds it hard to follow directions and can disrupt other pupils in the classroom. Tom's social group outside of school often engage in risky activities and Tom is known to youth offending services. The impact of developmental language disorder. For a long time, his DLD went unrecognised, as concern focused on Tom's behaviour and relationships with others. It eventually became apparent, however, that he has significant difficulties using and understanding language and his oral language skills are more like that of a Year 3 pupil. As a result, he gets involved in situations he does not fully understand, and can't use words to negotiate his way out of trouble. He cannot read, and when his Sendco asked him about his favourite film, he replied: "I don't really listen to the words they say, I just look at the pictures." - How many pupils have DLD?. How many pupils like Tom are there in schools?