LITeracy after phonology-focused or general Language Intervention in children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and Speech Sound Disorders (SSD) (LITLI)

Children with a developmental language disorder (DLD) have a higher risk of literacy problems, especially when they also have a speech sound disorder (SSD) that is phonological in nature. How the development of language, phonology and literacy are intertwined in DLD is not entirely clear yet. It is therefore not evident what support can best be provided in early childhood to prevent or reduce later literacy problems in children with DLD+SSD. In this project, we compare two forms of group intervention for preschoolers with DLD+SSD. One intervention is focused on the stimulation of language in general (GLI), the other mainly on phonology (PFI). PFI devotes more time and attention to the stimulation of phonological skills and emergent literacy than GLI. Previous research has shown that PFI results in better development of phonological skills. In this follow-up study, we investigate whether this is also reflected in children’s literacy skills a few years later.