Background and aims: A substantial minority of autistic individuals score within typical ranges on standard language tests, suggesting that autism does not necessarily affect language acquisition. This idea is reflected in current diagnostic criteria for autism, wherein language impairment is no longer included. However, some work has suggested…

Background and aims: Many children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have difficulties in executive functioning (EF) and theory of mind (ToM). These difficulties might be explained by the theory that children's conceptual understanding changes over five stages of word meaning structure, from concrete and context-dependent to abstract and…

Background: There is a clear predominance of programmes aimed at improving aspects related to language production in pupils with developmental language disorder (DLD). However, programmes aimed at improving their receptive skills are limited. Aims: The main aim was to assess the effectiveness of an intervention programme for oral language…

Visually situated spoken words activate phonological, visual, and semantic representations guiding overt attention during visual exploration. We compared the activation of these representations in children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD) across four eye-tracking experiments, with a particular focus on visual (shape)…

We investigated the associations between teacher-rated and direct assessments of early elementary students' speech and language skills to explore whether using teachers as primary screeners yielded assessment data that reliably identified young students with language difficulties who many need a more comprehensive evaluation. We assessed first-…

Background: Word-finding difficulties (WFDs) in children have been hypothesized to be caused at least partly by poor semantic knowledge. Therefore, improving semantic knowledge should decrease word-finding errors. Previous studies of semantic therapy for WFDs are inconclusive. Aims: To investigate the effectiveness of semantic therapy for…

Purpose: To assess the utility of a wide range of language measures (phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics) for the identification of adults with developmental language impairment. Method: Measures were administered to 3 groups of adults, each representing a population expected to demonstrate high levels of language impairment, and to…