Predictors of academic achievement and educational support for adolescents with developmental language disorder (DLD)

Purpose Developmental language disorder (DLD) has known consequences on academic performance, and adaptations to teaching methods and material are often required to counteract negative outcomes. This study used first-hand reports from students with DLD and their caregivers to explore how individual and school-related factors influence academic achievement and provision of educational support. Method We collected questionnaires from 246 Swedish adolescents with DLD and their caregivers. Binary logistic regression was used to model academic achievement and educational support as a function of individual (e.g. caregiver concern, heredity) and school-related (e.g. current difficulties in schoolwork, perceived complexity) predictors. Results The odds of receiving passing grades are lower for participants with disorders affecting receptive, rather than expressive, language abilities, and passing grades can be successfully predicted using the participants’ own rating of the complexity of school-tasks. The odds of being provided educational support increase dramatically when DLD coincides with other conditions. Conclusions The results indicate that the academic achievements of Swedish students with DLD depend on the subtype of language disorder and that the students’ own reports of school-task complexity hold valuable information to understand the educational needs. This information could be used for more unbiased decision-making, where the support to students with DLD is not conditioned on the presence of additional disorders.