Reading skills in children with Developmental Language Disorder - Research Seminar

Reading skills in children with Developmental Language Disorder: Prevalence, profiles and stability of reading difficulties in the SCALES cohort.

Dr. Debbie Gooch University of Surrey                                        Host: H. Nash

Reading skills in children with Developmental Language Disorder: Prevalence, profiles and stability of reading difficulties in the SCALES cohort.

It is well established that language skills are an important foundation for successful reading and that reading difficulties are common in clinically ascertained samples of children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). However, not all children with persistent DLD develop reading difficulties and understanding the factors that protect against reading difficulties in these children is important.

Using data from Surrey Communication and Language in Education Study (SCALES); a longitudinal UK population study of language development, the current study aims to determine the prevalence of reading difficulties during the early school years in children with and without Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Specifically the prevalence of reading comprehension difficulties with and without conglomerate weaknesses in decoding will be estimated. The factors associated with reading comprehension difficulties will be considered and the factors that protect against these difficulties in children with DLD will be explored.  Furthermore, the stability of word reading profiles will be examined. The findings highlight the role of language and DLD in reading comprehension difficulties and suggest that developing broader oral language skills in the early school years will help set a firm foundation for successful reading i.e. reading for meaning.