Review

‘Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) I’ll Help You Understand It’ written by two Speech and Language Therapists, Amanda Hampshire and Susan Stewart, is an accessible A5 sized book for parents to support their child. Each chapter covers different areas that a child or young person with DLD can present with including: understanding language, talking, word learning, social skills, sensory issues and memory. There are also chapters on School and College, Explaining to your child about DLD and Life Implications.  Every chapter following the structure of:  a case study, Information, ‘Put yourself in their shoes’, Strategies and Useful reading.

The case studies are from the authors’ own experience, such as ‘Joseph’ who finds understanding language challenging or ‘Anoop’ who struggles to translate his thoughts into words which impacts on his ability to share his thoughts and feelings.  Parents are then provided with ‘information’, for example on Page 13, the authors discuss the complex process needed for talking, from having an initial idea and to feel motivated to talk to then being able to construct an idea using the correct grammar structure.

I really liked the ‘Put yourself in their shoes…’ section. It invites parents to feel what it might be like for their own child -  a short passage is provided with a mix of upper and lower case letters and no spaces between words to show how hard it can be for their child to understand and process spoken language.

Every chapter also includes really clear and easy-to- follow strategies and practical ideas for parents to use with their child, such as visual supports like the Word Mat on Page 62 and Task Plan and Word Map on Page 63 as well as a Planner to support writing stories, Pages 77-78.

A key section of the book is Chapter 8 ‘Explaining to your child about DLD’ as the authors recognise the importance of promoting and developing children and young awareness of their DLD and self-advocacy skills.  It discusses the terminology of the specific words of ‘developmental’, ‘language’ and ‘disorder’ and encourages parents to explore this in an open and sensitive way together with their child, helping them to describe their DLD, recognise their own strengths and help the them to identify their individual self-help strategies.

The Appendices contain really useful information on professionals who can help and great website links to organisations such as RADLD and AFASIC. Additional references, useful You Tube video links on Page 91 and legislation on Pages 102-103 is also included.

Although this book is primarily written for parents I could also see it being useful for the wider family, education staff and those leading extra-curricular activities, e.g. Brownies, Cubs, Scouts.

Thank you, Amanda and Susan – I have been hoping to find something like this for a while and will certainly be sharing it with the families, colleagues and education staff I work with.

Paula Price
BA (Hons), BSc (Hons), MRCSLT, HCPC-Registered Speech and Language Therapist, Advanced Specialist in Developmental Language Disorders (DLD)