Innovating an online language assessment for Malay-speaking primary school-age children with developmental language disorder

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the management of children with language impairment abruptly shifted to online services, highlighting the need for digital resources among speech-language therapists. This study aimed to support this transition by developing and evaluating the usability of an online language assessment for Malay school-age children with developmental language disorder. A total of 36 Malay children aged 7–12 completed a language assessment consisting of nine language and cognitive tasks administered via CoughDrop ® on the Zoom video conferencing platform. The results revealed that children with developmental language disorder performed significantly lower than their typically developing peers, with substantial effect sizes observed across all measures. Feedback from seven speech-language therapists indicated that the online tool was user-friendly and well-integrated, although some technical challenges were encountered. This study demonstrates the potential of the newly developed online language assessment in identifying children with developmental language disorder while addressing the service delivery challenges faced by speech-language therapists during the pandemic, and it remains a valuable and relevant innovation in current clinical practice today.