Developmental Language Disorder (DLD): A Guide for Teachers

The Most Common Childhood Condition You've Probably Never Heard Of

Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is the most common childhood developmental condition you've probably never heard of. It affects approximately 7.6% of children — that's roughly 2 children in every average Australian classroom. To put that in perspective, DLD is significantly more common than autism, yet it receives a fraction of the public awareness and funding.

Children with DLD have significant difficulty understanding and/or using spoken language that is not explained by another condition such as hearing loss, intellectual disability, or autism. These difficulties go beyond what you would expect for a child's age and have a real impact on their ability to learn, communicate, and participate in everyday classroom life.

DLD is a lifelong condition. It does not go away — but with the right support, especially in the early years, children with DLD can develop effective communication strategies and thrive both academically and socially. The classroom teacher plays a critical role in this. You don't need to be a speech pathologist to make a significant difference — you need to know what to look for and what to do.

This guide brings together the signs of DLD, practical classroom strategies, NCCD documentation advice, and resources to help you support every learner in your classroom. For related reading, see our pages on Oral Language Activities and Reading Comprehension Activities.

References:

• The DLD Project — Raising Awareness
• NCCD — Classroom Adjustments for Developmental Language Disorder

DLD often goes unrecognised because children with DLD may appear to cope. They use context clues, copy what their peers are doing, or stay quiet to avoid drawing attention to their difficulties. Many are mislabelled as "not trying", "naughty", or "shy" — when the real issue is that they are struggling to understand or use language.

It is also important to know that DLD is about language, not pronunciation. A child with DLD may have perfectly clear speech sounds — the difficulty is with understanding words and sentences, finding the right words, constructing sentences, and following instructions.

Receptive Language (Understanding)

Watch for students who:

• Have difficulty following multi-step instructions
• Frequently ask "what?" or look to peers before starting tasks
• Struggle with new vocabulary — they need significantly more exposure and repetition than their peers
• Misunderstand questions, especially "why" and "how" questions
• Have difficulty understanding texts read aloud, even when their decoding is adequate

Expressive Language (Using Language)

Watch for students who:

• Use shorter, simpler sentences than their peers
• Have difficulty finding the right words (word-finding difficulties) — they pause, use filler words, or talk around the word they want
• Tell stories that are hard to follow — events out of order, missing key information
• Rely on vague language ("stuff", "thing", "that one") instead of specific vocabulary
• Make grammar errors that persist well beyond the age when their peers have outgrown them (e.g., "him goed" in Year 2)

Social and Academic Impact

• Difficulty participating in class discussions
• Struggles with written work — because writing depends on oral language, and if a student cannot construct a sentence orally, they cannot write one
• May withdraw socially or have difficulty making and keeping friends
• Behaviour issues that may actually be frustration from not understanding what is happening or what is expected
• May perform better in maths (where language demands are lower) than in literacy — though as maths becomes more language-heavy in upper primary, this advantage often fades

You do not need specialist training to support students with DLD. The strategies below are evidence-based, practical, and — importantly — they benefit every student in your class. A classroom that is good for children with language difficulties is a great classroom for everyone.

Modify How You Give Instructions

• Use short, clear sentences — give one instruction at a time rather than stringing several together
• Pair verbal instructions with visual supports: pictures, written steps on the board, gestures, or demonstrations
• Check understanding before the student begins — ask them to tell you what they need to do first, rather than asking "Do you understand?" (most students will say yes regardless)
• Allow extra processing time — after asking a question, count to 5 silently before expecting a response. Students with DLD need significantly more time to process language than their peers

Support Vocabulary Development

• Pre-teach key vocabulary before introducing new topics — don't wait for students to encounter unfamiliar words mid-lesson
• Use word walls with pictures, not just words. Visual supports make vocabulary accessible and memorable
• Provide multiple exposures to new words across different contexts — one encounter is not enough for students with DLD
• Teach word relationships: synonyms, antonyms, categories. This builds the networks of meaning that make vocabulary stick
• For more vocabulary activities, see our Oral Language Activities page

Scaffold Language Output

• Provide sentence starters and sentence frames (e.g., "I think because ") so students can participate without having to generate the entire sentence structure from scratch
• Use graphic organisers for writing tasks — they reduce the language planning load and help students organise their ideas before writing
• Allow oral rehearsal before writing — let students talk through what they want to say before putting pen to paper. This is one of the most powerful strategies for students with DLD
• Accept shorter written responses with maintained quality — a well-constructed paragraph is a greater achievement than a poorly constructed page

Create a Language-Rich Classroom

• Model rich language throughout the day — not just during English lessons
• Use think-alouds: verbalise your thinking process so students can hear how language is used to reason, plan, and explain
• Explicitly teach the language of the classroom — when you say "compare", explain what that means: "When I say compare, I mean tell me how these two things are the same and how they are different"
• Use collaborative learning structures that maximise talk: think-pair-share, barrier games, partner discussions. Students with DLD need more opportunities to practise using language, not fewer

Assess Fairly

• Reduce the language demands of assessments where the language is not the skill being assessed — if you are testing science knowledge, don't let complex question wording be the barrier
• Read questions aloud if the assessment is not testing reading ability
• Allow extra time for processing and responding
• Use visual prompts alongside written and verbal questions

For a related evidence-based framework for structuring lessons, see our Explicit Instruction Guide.

Reference: AllPlay Learn — Communication Disorders

The Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD) is how Australian schools document the adjustments they provide to students with disability. Understanding how DLD fits within the NCCD framework is important for both student support and school accountability.

DLD Qualifies for the NCCD

DLD qualifies as a disability under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005. Students with DLD may be included in the NCCD at the Supplementary or Substantial levels of adjustment, depending on the extent and frequency of support they require.

You Don't Need a Medical Diagnosis

A formal diagnosis from a speech pathologist is helpful but not required for NCCD inclusion. Schools can document adjustments based on the student's observed functional impact in the classroom. If a student is struggling to access the curriculum because of language difficulties, and you are providing adjustments to support them, that can be documented.

What to Document

• The adjustments you are providing — visual supports, modified instructions, pre-teaching vocabulary, sentence frames, extra processing time, modified assessments
• How the student responds to those adjustments — what is working and what needs to change
• Evidence of ongoing support — this is not a one-off intervention but a sustained pattern of adjustment
• Speech pathology reports, if available, strengthen documentation and provide specific recommendations

Why This Matters

Many students with DLD receive no formal support because the condition is so under-recognised. When teachers understand DLD and document their adjustments through the NCCD, it creates a record that follows the student, informs future teachers, and contributes to appropriate resourcing for the school.

DLD Awareness Day

DLD Awareness Day is held on the third Friday of October each year. It is a good opportunity to build school-wide awareness, run professional learning sessions, and ensure all staff understand what DLD is and how to support students. The DLD Project provides free resources for schools to use on the day.

For more strategies for supporting students with learning difficulties in the classroom, see our page on Learning Difficulties Strategies.

Reference: NCCD