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6 Speak Out February 2017
Which term do you use to describe a child with expressive
and/or receptive language difficulties that impact on their daily
life? Do you use specific language impairment (SLI), language
disorder, developmental language impairment, developmental
language disorder, or something different?
For years, speech pathologists, and others have debated how
best to identify children with SLI and what is the most appropriate
terminology to use.
In the mid 2000s a group of educators, medicos and allied health
professionals, led by Dorothy Bishop, initiated a campaign:
Raising Awareness of Language Learning Impairment (RALLI) in
response to the concern that children with SLI are often “invisible”
(i.e., undiagnosed) and hence are unable to access the support
they need.
The group identified two main barriers to children with SLI
accessing services: (1) the lack of appropriate criteria for
identifying children who might benefit from specialist prevention
and intervention services; and (2) the lack of consistent
terminology to describe the difficulties the children were
experiencing. It was proposed, as a matter of high priority, that
a study be undertaken to determine if it was possible to achieve
consensus among professionals with regards to these two issues.
Recruitment of a group of international experts (the CATALISE
consortium), including 6 Australians, from a range of disciplines
involved in working with children with SLI commenced and a two-
phase project developed: 1 – Identifying language impairments in
children and, 2 – Terminology.
In Phase 1 consensus was reached for 27 statements related
to the identification and differential diagnosis of children with
language impairments. Speech pathologists who work with
children are encouraged to acquaint themselves with the
statements reported by the CATALISE consortium.
Phase 2 resulted in consensus on 19 of the 21 statements.
Two of those statements made recommendations regarding
terminology.
“Statement 2: The term ‘language disorder’ is proposed for
children who are likely to have language problems enduring
into middle childhood and beyond, with a significant impact on
everyday social interactions or educational progress.”
“Statement 7: The term Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)
is proposed to refer to cases of language disorder with no known
differentiating condition (as defined in Statement 6).”
Following the report of the CATALISE recommendations
discussion ensued both nationally and internationally as to
whether or not speech pathologists and indeed speech pathology
associations should adopt the recommended terminology. The
Speech Pathology Australia Board at their December meeting
discussed the matter and as a first step has endorsed the
adoption of the terms Language Disorder (LD) and Developmental
Language Disorder (DLD) in all future SPA publications and
communications. Further discussions will follow, in conjunction
with our international colleagues, on the next steps required
to encourage widespread adoption of this terminology. This
information, including ways in which members can support this
process, will be reported in the April edition of Speak Out .
Chris Lyons
Senior Advisor, Professional Practice
SPA adopts terminology for language disorder and DLD
Speech Pathology Australia has endorsed the adoption of the terminology recommended by the CATALISE
consortium in future publications and communications.
Association news