Educational participation in children with developmental language disorder: associations with co-occurring developmental difficulties
Participation in education refers to children’s attendance and involvement in educational activities and is central to their development. Educational activities are highly language-dependent, making children with developmental language disorder (DLD) potentially vulnerable to participation barriers. However, DLD is heterogeneous, and many children show co-occurring nonlinguistic difficulties. Little is known about how educational participation varies within this population in relation to these difficulties. Parents of 72 children with DLD aged 5–10 years, recruited from a specialized inpatient rehabilitation clinic in Germany between March and September 2023, completed the Participation and Environment Measure for Children and Youth. Children were grouped according to whether they had no, one, or at least two co-occurring nonlinguistic difficulties, as assessed by standardized measures in visual-perceptual, motor, and behavioral domains. Group differences were tested with Kruskal–Wallis tests, and associations with Spearman correlations. Participation frequency and involvement in individual educational activities were largely similar across groups. However, mean participation frequency across activities decreased with increasing numbers of co-occurring difficulties and was significantly lower in children with two or more difficulties than in the other groups. Higher motor coordination was associated with higher mean participation frequency, whereas visual-perceptual and behavioral abilities were not. Involvement was high across groups, with no significant group differences or associations. Within the context of this clinical sample, findings suggest that co-occurring difficulties in DLD, particularly more complex developmental profiles and lower motor coordination, may contribute to reduced participation frequency in educational activities. Supporting educational participation in children with DLD requires a holistic, context-sensitive approach that considers co-occurring difficulties.