Children and adolescents with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) are at increased risk for the development of psychosocial problems compared to their peers without DLD. There is much individual... Show moreChildren and adolescents with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) are at increased risk for the development of psychosocial problems compared to their peers without DLD. There is much individual variation within the group of children with DLD regarding their level and development of psychosocial problems. However, there is no systematic relationship between the severity of children’s communication problems and their psychosocial problems.Emotional competence refers to the ability to recognise, understand, regulate, and express emotions adaptively in social interactions. Emotional competence is gained through social interactions, in which language plays an important role. In children without DLD, problems in emotional competence are important risk factors for the development of different psychosocial problems, which may also be the case in children with DLD. Therefore, it this research project we examined whether problems in emotional competence could explain the level and development of children with and without DLD between 9 and 16 years old. We found that problems in emotional competence indeed explained higher levels of psychosocial problems in children with and without DLD and that increasing levels of emotional competence were related to lower levels of psychosocial problems across time. These outcomes indicate that difficulties in emotional competence make children with DLD vulnerable to psychosocial problems and requires specific support and interventions. Show less
Specific language impairment (SLI), or developmental language disorder, is the most prevalent development disorder in childhood. However, most children with SLI are detected late. Predictive... Show moreSpecific language impairment (SLI), or developmental language disorder, is the most prevalent development disorder in childhood. However, most children with SLI are detected late. Predictive properties of language milestones and risk factors for having SLI later in life were investigated in a nested case-control study. The outcomes showed that from the age of two years, children not meeting language milestones at the norm age are at risk for having SLI at school age. A concise tool was developed to enable young children with SLI to be detected. This uses five language milestones and has acceptable predictive values. Of all investigated risk factors, only maternal age, the place in the birth order and being breastfeed directly after birth had a relationship with having SLI later. It was also established that children with SLI were more likely to be late, not only in reaching language milestones, but also in reaching motor milestones at the norm age. Suggestions are made to improve the early detection of children with SLI using this concise tool. The concise tool is easy to implement in the Dutch healthcare system because it uses data already collected during visits in the well-child healthcare system in the Netherlands. Show less
