Nicola Botting
Language, literacy and cognitive skills of young adults with developmental language disorder (DLD)
City, University of London
abstract background limited evidence concerning longer term language literacy cognitive skills young adults developmental language disorder dld studies exist suggest continuing difficulties language reading abilities may change time aims study aimed examine language literacy cognitive skills young adults without dld methods amp procedures data used manchester language study data set collected group young adults dld recruited originally 7 years age language unitsspecialist educational resource bases participants assessed language literacy cognitive functioning aged 24 comparison group agematched peers amps also 24 years old also assessed language cognition change scores 16 24 years also available analysis finally selfrated measures literacy difficulties taken 24 years functional reading writing outcome amp results results indicate young people dld sample continue perform poorly group formal oral written language tests small significant minority young adults dld also report functional reading writing difficulties compared amps despite reporting reading often peer group compared scores 16 years age subsample appears show slightly less risk nonverbal iq difficulties showing small significant catchup amps conclusions amp implications preliminary data suggest least individuals dld experience marked linguistic difficulties adulthood pathways language literacy cognition entirely parallel group continued support awareness challenges young adults dld may useful paper adds already known subject known dld long term persists adulthood recently body work reporting wellbeing population well employment financial status driving ability however little information language literacy cognitive skills beyond school age paper adds existing knowledge study presents data language literacy cognition large cohort young adults dld amps sample large proportion participants score low language fewer scoring impaired literacy cognition significant minority reports difficulties functional reading preliminary analysis appears suggest language development remains depressed nonverbal cognitive skills show catch time potential actual clinical implications work increased awareness continued support language literacy cognition may useful young adults dld