Thread by @TheDLDProject_

📣 DOES DLD REALLY AFFECT 1 IN 14 PEOPLE? 🤔

When discussing Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) people are often struck by the high prevalence. It almost seems unbelievable!

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#DevLangDis #1in14 #DLDSeeMe

Here are some of the usual responses:

➡️ "Really?! 1 in 14 people. That seems like a lot."

➡️ "If there are 2 kids with DLD in the average classroom of 30, how come I haven't heard of it?"

So how do we know DLD affects 1 in 14 people?

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To start with we rely on epidemiology (prevalence) studies, but these are often expensive, time-consuming, and have some limitations. This means we don't have a lot of them.

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✅ One study by Bruce Tomblin and team in 1997 screened 7218 children in the US and found approximate 7.4% had DLD (formerly SLI). Approximately 8% of boys and 6% of girls were affected.

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✅ In 2016, @lilacCourt and her team in the UK assessed 7267 children. They found 7.58% had DLD and 2.34% had a Language Disorder associated with a condition (such as Autism or Intellectual Disability).

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💜💛 With some quick maths, we have a pretty good idea that DLD will impact around 7.5% | 1 in 14 people | 2 in the average classroom of children, however, both of these studies only looked at children from 4 to 6 years of age.

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Here we need to look at research that has taken place over a period of time (longitudinal).

✅ Bruce Tomblin followed 196 children from his earlier research for 4 years and found DLD will persist into primary school.

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✅ The Manchester Language Study has been tracking the progress of participants with DLD in the UK since the 1990's. Through multiple research papers, the research team has clearly demonstrated that DLD is a lifelong condition, but impacts people in different ways.

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💜💛 With the knowledge of "how many" have DLD and the lifelong impact documented in these (and many other) studies, we can say with growing confidence that 1 in 14 people have DLD.

#DevLangDis #1in14 #DLDSeeMe

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