HMC marks World Developmental Language Disorder Awareness Day

October 15 of each year has been dedicated to celebrating the Day, which was held this year under the theme, #Think about language # Think about developmental language disorder. The workshop was attended by 25 mothers of children living with the developmental language disorder.Iman al-Mulla, head of Speech Therapy Department at QRI, stated that the workshop aimed at extending support to parents of children living with the disorder and to train them on how to reconcile with the reality and help develop their language skills. It was also aimed at raising public awareness of the disorder and highlighting the quality healthcare services provided by HMC to the affected children.“Children living with the developmental language disorder usually have difficulty developing expressive and receptive language skills, as the disorder takes the form of a significant delay in the proper use of language at different levels including vocal, grammatical, semantic, and connotative levels. In the absence of therapeutic intervention, such delay is likely to continue until adulthood,”al-Mulla added.Developmental Language Disorder can be determined if the deficiency in language performance is not associated with low mental capacity, hearing impairment, or any other medical conditions. It is important to know that the incidence of developmental language disorder is relatively high and often affects self-confidence, academic performance, professional future of the individual, and the quality of life in general.There are therapeutic intervention options which may improve language skills in children and adolescents with Developmental Language Disorder. These interventions, which can be age oriented or custom-designed for individual needs, focus on stimulating general or specific language skills, including vocabulary and sentence structuring.