Read and Spell Blog

If you haven’t heard of Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) it may be because as a public facing term the name is a relatively new one. It was chosen by a panel of experts in early 2017 as part of the CATALISE project - a multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study identifying language impairments in children - and describes what was previously known as Specific Language Impairment (SLI).

Children with Developmental Language Disorder do not have autism spectrum disorder (ASD), apraxia of speech, brain damage or hearing impairment but still experience language based communication difficulties that disrupt their life and do not go away by the age of 5. Every case of DLD is unique and individuals will vary in the severity of the disruption to communicative ability.

Symptoms range from trouble with pronunciation, to challenges with learning vocabulary, problems manipulating syntax (grammar), and/or using the correct language for a particular context (pragmatics). Problems with language retrieval, similar to what is seen in aphasia/dysphasia, may also be observed. And while DLD mainly addresses issues with spoken communication, children tend to struggle with literacy skills as well.

Students with learning disabilities or differences like dyslexia and dysgraphia, or processing disorders and/or attention disorders, like ADHD, may have to work harder than their peers to achieve the same results. These kids can have trouble getting started on a task, need instructions to be repeated more than once, and/or be unable to complete work in a given time period. 

While any child can suffer from low self-esteem, students with learning disabilities, attention disorders, and special needs are particularly at risk, especially if their condition is undiagnosed. This is because most school-based learning programs are developed with a neurotypical child in mind.

The mismatch between learning style and task can cause some students to doubt themselves and believe poor performance means they are not “smart” and are somehow less skilled than their classmates. The stress and frustration a child experiences at school is often accompanied by feelings of shame, which are associated with underperforming. There is also the social stigma of being “different."

But with the right strategy training, accommodations and emotional support, many children with specific learning differences and attention disorders can overcome the challenges they face and achieve their full potential in the classroom.

Writing is a complex and cognitively demanding task that requires a child to bring together both lower and higher order skills, including manipulating abstract ideas while paying close attention to the spelling and punctuation conventions of written English.

If the physical act of putting letters on a page is problematic or a learning difficulty gets in the way of fluent language production, students may struggle to come up with legible and coherent compositions. This can lead to poor grades on quizzes and tests but can also affect learning when note-taking skills are compromised.

Because writing is central to most subjects across the school curriculum, over time poor performance on written assignments can result in negative associations with classroom learning, low self-esteem and a general lack of confidence at school. A child may believe he or she is a bad writer and begin to avoid writing activities, which in turn results in a less developed skill set.

The tragedy is that with the right strategy training and appropriate accommodations, every child can achieve his or her full potential.

Dysgraphia is a language based specific learning difference that primarily affects writing. It can be difficult to spot in young learners, as not every child develops literacy skills at the same rate. Nonetheless, there are some hallmark signs of trouble which usually show up when a child first learns to write.

For example, these children often have problems holding a pen or pencil and forming letters and numbers, both in print and in cursive writing. They can struggle to express themselves in writing, from organizing ideas, to spelling and using punctuation correctly. Poor handwriting is common. The spacing between words may be uneven, letter size can vary and there will be issues staying inside margins.

Students with dysgraphia can find it hard to show what they have learned when an assessment is done via writing. Dysgraphic children also tend to find copying exercises challenging and may avoid coloring and drawing too.

As writing by hand is necessary for everything from putting your name at the top of a page, to making notes, completing worksheets and taking tests, learning can be affected when a child doesn’t get access to the accommodations and strategy training he or she needs.