Parents of children with Developmental Language Disorder are facing an advocacy battle. They say they have been left to navigate an education system that is failing to recognise their children’s language difficulties.

A recent study highlighted the rewards and challenges of raising a child with DLD, with most challenges resulting from a lack of awareness of the disorder.

Research published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry shows DLD affects one in 14 students—making it more common than autism spectrum disorder (which affects one in 40) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (which affects one in 20). Despite its prevalence it is largely unrecognised with fewer than 20 per cent of Australians having heard of it.

Fremantle Speech Pathology Services co-director and speech pathologist Annique Farrelly said awareness of DLD was significantly behind other conditions.

“Lots of teachers know about autism and ADHD, but DLD is still an unknown. This lack of recognition makes it harder for families to get support,” she said.

DLD is a lifelong condition where an individual experiences difficulty using and understanding language. This can present as a reduced vocabulary, trouble forming correct sentences and difficulty following instructions. It is only diagnosed when another condition, such as autism, does not better explain a person’s language difficulties.

Ms Farrelly said children with DLD faced significant challenges because language skills were crucial to many aspects of life, such as learning and social interaction.

“It’s not just reading and writing. They struggle with daily activities.”

Curtin University speech pathology academic Suze Leitao said many parents have had to advocate for their child’s language needs due to the lack of awareness of the disorder.

She agreed with Ms Farrelly and said: “Many [teachers] are not aware – the profile is misunderstood or, even worse, not acknowledged or accepted.”

Ms Farrelly said: “Parents are trying their best. They send reports to the school and assume the teacher will know about the diagnosis. But that isn’t always the case—that’s scary.”

Both Professor Leitao and Ms Farrelly said teachers played a crucial role in the early identification of DLD and more training was needed for teachers on the disorder.  

“When we know better, we do better,” Ms Farrelly said. “Awareness is slowly increasing. We must keep talking about DLD and ensuring teachers understand what it looks like.”

With term one ending, Ms Farrelly said she hoped teachers were raising language concerns with parents by now.

“By the end of term one teachers should have enough insight to discuss concerns with parents,” she said.

Ms Farrelly urged parents to get a language assessment if they had concerns about their child’s language development.

“It’s better to send them for a language assessment and everything be okay than miss the opportunity to intervene while they’re young.”

Despite the lack of awareness, some academics remained hopeful.

Charles Stuart University speech pathology academic Cyrena Hunt-Madden said individuals with DLD could thrive academically and socially with the right support.

“Individuals with DLD are fully capable of achieving their goals and succeeding in life”.