Evidence-Based Practices in Treating Developmental Language Disorders: Current Trends and Future Directions

Dear Colleagues,

The term Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is used to describe children who encounter problems with use and/or understanding of language that do not resolve in early childhood and that adversely affect their social and educational development. These problems occur in the absence of any underlying or differentiating condition (Bishop et al., 2017). There is general agreement that the prevalence of DLD is around 7%, although estimates can vary in line with criteria used to identify children (Hill et al., 2023). The high prevalence and social and educational impacts of DLD mean that effective intervention is needed based on high quality evidence-based studies, to ensure progress and good use of resources.

However, providing the evidence is not straightforward. These sorts of intervention are considered ‘complex’ in that multiple components may interact with each other and external factors that may contribute to change are difficult to control (Bates, 2022; Tarvainen et al., 2025). Furthermore, applying evidence-based procedures in real-world settings may be challenging (Willard and Kelly, 2025). Studies vary not only in the types of intervention they evaluate but also according to a number of other parameters that include: criteria for inclusion in the study; how change in children’s language is measured, for example through use of standardised tests, naturalistic language sampling, or qualitative evaluation of the child’s communication; and what is measured, be it the language behaviours being directly targeted as in Spencer, Kirby & Peterson’s (2024) study of vocabulary instruction, more general language skills, or even the communicative behaviours of those around the child (Barnet et al.).

The ’gold standard’ for study design is the randomised control trial (RCT: examples include West et al., 2021, evaluating the NELI programme currently rolled out across UK schools; McKean et al. (2025) evaluating Building Early Sentences Therapy (BEST) for preschool children). However other designs, such as single case studies (Spencer, Kirby & Peterson, 2024.) and quasi-experimental studies (for example Trebacz et al., 2023) are useful where resources are limited or where people wish to get an idea of whether the intervention is likely to succeed before running a bigger trial. For this Special Issue, we are looking for original research which reflects new interventions for children with DLD, ways of measuring success, innovative methodologies, or meeting the challenges of rolling out evidence-based practice in real-world settings.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200 words summarising their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editors (Email A) or to /Languages/ editorial office (languages@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review. 

References

Barnet S E, Levickis P, Stringer H, McKean C and Letts, C (2021). Validation of a measure of parental responsiveness: Comparison of the brief Parental Responsiveness Scale with a detailed measure of responsive parental behaviours. Journal of Child Health Care, 26(1), 56-67. doi:10.1177/1367493521996489

Bates G (2022). Complex Interventions. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 15(1), 30-51. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750984X.2021.2001838

Bishop D V M, Snowling, M J, Thompson P A, Greenhalg T and the CATALISE-2 consortium (2017). Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 58(10), 1068-1080. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12721

Hill E, Calder S, Candy C, Truscott G, Kaur J, Savage B and Reilly S. (2023). Low language capacity in childhood: A systematic review of prevalence estimates. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 59(1), 124-142.  https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12944

McKean C, Jack C, Pert S, Letts C, Stringer H, Masidlover M, Trebacz A, Rush R, Armstrong E, Conn K, Sandham J, Ashton E and Rose N (2025). A cluster randomised control trial comparing the efficacy of pre-school language interventions – Building Early Sentences Therapy and an adapted Derbyshire Language Scheme. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 60(3), e70036. doi: 10.1111/1460-6984.70036

Spencer T D, Kirby M S and Peterson D B (2024). Vocabulary instruction embedded in narrative intervention: A repeated acquisition design study with fist graders at risk of language-based reading difficulty. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 33(1), 135-152. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_AJSLP-23-00004

Tarvainen S, Frizelle P, Granroth-Wilding H, Stolt S, and Launonen K. (2025). Intervention factors associated with efficacy, when targeting oral language comprehension of children with or at risk for (Developmental) Language Disorder: A meta-analysis. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 60(2), e70013.  https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.70013

Trebacz A, McKean C, Stringer H and Pert S (2023). Piloting building early sentences therapy for pre-school children with low language abilities: An examination of efficacy and the fole of sign as an active ingredient. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 59(3), 1128-1151.

West G, Snowling M, Lervåg A, Buchanan-Worster E, Duta M, Hall A, McLachian H and Hulme C (2021). Early language screening and intervention can be delivered successfully at scale: evidence from a cluster randomized control trial. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 62(12), 1425-1434. doi:10.1111/jcpp.13415

Willard C and Kelly E (2025). Supporting speech-language pathologists in evidence-based language intervention: Lessons learned from a researcher-practitioner collaboration. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in the Schools, published online. https://doi-org.libproxy.ncl.ac.uk/10.1044/2025_LSHSS-25-00043

Dr. Carolyn Letts
Dr. Cecilia Zuniga-Montanez
Guest Editors

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• developmental language disorder (DLD)
• intervention
• evidence
• methodology.