Developmental Language Disorder and Writing: A Scoping Review From Childhood to Adulthood

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to conduct a scoping review of literature focused on the effects of developmental language disorder (DLD) on writing skills across the life span to highlight gaps in our knowledge of how to support writing for this population. Method: We adopted the five-step framework for conducting scoping reviews outlined by Arksey and O'Malley (2005) to identify literature focused on writing outcomes for individuals with DLD in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Results: Seventy-two studies from 1991 to 2022 met review criteria. Results indicated that spelling may be an area of relative weakness for individuals with DLD across the life span. Children and adolescents with DLD also may have relative difficulty with grammar, organization, cohesion, and length of written output. Research on the writing skills of adults with DLD is too sparse to draw broad conclusions about the writing skills of this subset of the population with DLD. Conclusions: Overall, research into the writing skills of individuals with DLD is limited, and more information is needed to inform functional evidence-based approaches to assessment and intervention of writing for those with DLD from childhood through adulthood. Additionally, more focus on electronic writing in research is needed, as only two studies included in this review examined typed writing in any form. Results of this review also indicate a need for systematic, uniform approaches to defining and measuring writing skills for those who experience language difficulties. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23596797

Bridging the writing gap in studying language related disorders: the process and the product

“…Similar gaps in research exist for DLD, a condition characterized by significant oral language production, and in severe cases, comprehension difficulties. Tucci and Choi ( 2023 ) conducted a comprehensive review of DLD's effects on writing skills, revealing challenges encompassing handwriting, spelling, organization, cohesion, planning, and narrative quality. Weaker grammatical abilities and the production of writing samples comparable in length to peers with typical language development were also noted.…”

Exploring Spanish writing abilities of children with developmental language disorder in expository texts

“…Thus, children with DLD are expected to face difficulties in producing written content due to their challenges both in oral language and executive functioning, particularly in working memory ( Im-Bolter et al, 2006 ; Archibald and Joanisse, 2009 ; Montgomery et al, 2010 ; Ebert and Kohnert, 2011 ). Accordingly, different studies have found problems in written production in children with DLD (i.e., Broc et al, 2021 ; Tucci and Choi, 2023 ). Written productions can be evaluated accordingly through analyses of microstructure and macrostructure ( Liles et al, 1995 ).…”

“…As far as we know, previous studies about writing in children with DLD have focused on analyzing the microstructure. Tucci and Choi (2023) performed a scoping review of literature focused on the effects of DLD on writing skills across the lifespan. Results showed that spelling may be the most vulnerable area for individuals with DLD.…”

“…Error patterns in children with DLD were similar to younger language matched peers but more frequent than their age-matched peers. Moreover, children and adolescents with DLD also may have difficulties with grammar, organization, cohesion, and length of written output (Tucci and Choi, 2023). They make more errors and omissions when writing nominal inflectional morphemes and using derivational morphemes (prefixes and suffixes) than age-matched children (Connelly et al, 2011;Mackie et al, 2013).…”