Receptive Vocabulary, Phonological Short-Term Memory, Theory of Mind and Oral Inferential Comprehension in French-Speaking Preschoolers With and Without Developmental Language Disorder

This study reiterates the early listening comprehension difficulties experienced by preschool children with DLD when compared to children presenting with typical language development. The results also indicate that when controlling for age, LPE and diagnosis condition, children are likely to have better inferential comprehension abilities if they perform well on a measure of ToM. Considering that challenges related to language comprehension are acknowledged to be persistent and less responsive to intervention, these findings can help inform the development of evidence-based interventions aiming at supporting language comprehension of young children with DLD.