Supporting children with developmental language disorder requires better classroom design

Classroom adjustments such as clearer instructions and visual support can significantly aid pupils with developmental language disorder, highlighting the need for inclusive teaching practices that benefit all students.

Children with developmental language disorder can look attentive in class and still miss the point. According to the US National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, DLD affects a child’s ability to learn, understand and use language, and can affect speaking, listening, reading and writing. That makes school a daily hurdle for pupils who struggle to follow instructions, process complex wording or explain what they do not understand. At the same time, researchers and teachers say the condition can also expose weaknesses in the way lessons are designed.

That is the point Preben Kirkegaard, a lecturer and researcher at UCN, is making when he argues that the problem is too often placed on the child alone. The real question, he says, is whether the teaching is structured so that every pupil can take part. Simple adjustments such as clearer instructions, more explicit steps and a better breakdown of tasks can help pupils with DLD, but they can also improve lessons for everyone else.

The issue is not small. Research cited in the article says DLD affects about seven to nine per cent of children, roughly one to two pupils in an average class. The Cleveland Clinic describes it as a lifelong condition, but one that can improve with early support. It can also be hard to spot, because children may not raise their hand and say they have not understood a sentence; instead, they simply fall behind.

That reality is visible in Cornelius from Sæby, whose family has seen both his strengths and his difficulties. He is strong in mathematics, but when tasks are wrapped in too much language, he can stall. His father, Christian Kaxe, says some changes in how work is explained can make a clear difference, though he also believes some needs remain highly individual. The family only later realised that his language difficulties were not simply about moving from Norwegian to Danish.

At C. la Cours Skole in Randers, staff have tried to respond by using visual support, writing templates and sentence starters, and by splitting assignments into smaller parts. Vivi Andersen says these tools help more than just children with DLD, including pupils with concentration problems. The school’s experience reflects a broader view also set out by the Institute of Communication and Psychology: visual support, explicit teaching and scaffolding can all help pupils with language difficulties. But as Kristine Jensen de López, a professor of developmental psychology at Aalborg University, notes, general strategies are not always enough on their own.

For schools, the lesson is both practical and wider than DLD itself. The Education Ministry has said schools are responsible for making sure pupils with DLD can develop and thrive in both academic and social communities, while also acknowledging that many schools have lacked the knowledge to support them properly. The most useful response may be to treat DLD not as a niche issue, but as a reminder that clearer teaching, better structure and more shared expertise can raise the quality of education across the classroom.