Children with language delay referred to Dutch speech and hearing centres: caseload characteristics.
Karin Wiefferink, Camilla van Beugen, Barbara Wegener Sleeswijk and 1 others
PMID 32459389WHAT IT FOUND
Boys were referred to speech therapy 5 months earlier than girls, and monolingual children 3 months earlier than bilingual children.
Bilingual children were more likely to have combined receptive and expressive problems, suggesting girls and bilingual children with milder issues are being missed.
Key findings
01Boys with language disorders were referred 5 months earlier than girls (46 vs 51 months).
02Monolingual children were referred 3 months earlier than bilingual children (46 vs 49 months).
03Bilingual children more often had receptive language problems compared with monolingual children (66% vs 49% in DLD; 63% vs 47% in those with additional problems).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Retrospective database analysis with no control group. Bilingualism was registered as any non-Dutch home language, including indigenous dialects like Frisian, without separating ethnic minority status from linguistic background. Standardized tests were not always used; clinical judgment was sometimes the basis for categorization, especially for younger children. The study does not include data on socioeconomic status or parental education, which may confound referral age. Children with sensorineural hearing loss were excluded, limiting generalizability to that subgroup.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that later referral for girls or bilingual children indicates milder impairment. The study found bilingual children had more complex receptive-expressive profiles, suggesting that delayed identification may lead to missed opportunities for early intervention rather than reflecting a less severe condition.