Online Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) Support

Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) can affect how a child or young person understands and uses spoken language. The impact can look different at different ages and may become more noticeable as language demands increase through school, friendships, examinations and preparation for adult life.

Speech and Language Therapy may support areas such as understanding complex language, vocabulary, sentence structure, organising and expressing ideas, following instructions, inferencing, narrative skills, interpreting questions, social communication and using language effectively in everyday situations.

At RoseminSLT, therapy is individualised around your child’s language profile, strengths, interests, needs and longer-term goals.

What does online Speech and Language Therapy look like?

Assessment and therapy take place online through Zoom, allowing your child to access specialist Speech and Language Therapy from home.

An initial assessment is usually approximately 90 minutes. This includes time with parents to take a detailed case history, followed by time assessing your child’s speech, language and communication skills online.

Assessment may explore areas such as:

• understanding spoken language
• expressive language
• vocabulary
• sentence formulation
• following increasingly complex information
• explaining and organising ideas
• narrative skills
• inferencing and higher-level language
• language used for learning
• social communication where relevant

The exact assessment will depend on your child’s age, needs and existing information.

Before arranging an assessment, you are welcome to book a free 15-minute consultation call to discuss your concerns and whether online assessment and therapy are likely to be suitable.

Book a Free 15-Minute Consultation

Online therapy sessions

Online therapy sessions are usually 45 minutes long and can be booked individually or as a block of six sessions.

Therapy may focus on areas such as:

• understanding longer or more complex spoken information
• developing vocabulary
• building more complex sentences
• explaining ideas clearly
• organising thoughts before speaking or writing
• retelling events and constructing narratives
• understanding implied meaning
• inferencing
• understanding figurative or ambiguous language
• interpreting examination and classroom questions
• developing language for problem-solving
• social communication
• self-advocacy
• functional communication for everyday life

Targets are selected according to your child’s individual language profile rather than working through a standard programme.

A clear therapy plan for home and school

When your child begins a therapy block, you receive a structured therapy plan explaining the areas being targeted, alongside practical advice and strategies that can be used outside the session.

This helps you understand exactly what is being worked on and why.

The therapy plan can also be shared with your child’s SENCO, teacher or other relevant school staff if you wish, helping school and home reinforce similar strategies.

For a child with DLD, this may be particularly valuable because language difficulties can affect many different parts of the school day rather than appearing only during English lessons.

For example, a young person may understand a topic but struggle to:

• process the wording of a question
• identify what an examiner is asking
• organise an answer
• retrieve the vocabulary they need
• explain their reasoning
• follow lengthy verbal instructions
• infer information that has not been stated explicitly

Consistent strategies across therapy, home and school can help developing skills become more useful in everyday life.

Parents remain involved

Online therapy does not mean parents are excluded from the process.

The final few minutes of a therapy session can be used to explain what has been worked on, discuss activities or strategies for carryover and give parents an opportunity to raise relevant concerns.

For some children, greater parent involvement may be useful depending on their age and needs.

This regular contact also gives parents an opportunity to tell me about real situations that are proving difficult.

For example:

“She knew the answer but couldn’t explain it in class.”

“He misunderstood what the exam question was asking.”

“She gets overwhelmed when people give several instructions together.”

“He can tell me what happened, but the story comes out in a muddle.”

These everyday observations can help keep therapy relevant to the child’s real communication needs.

Supporting carryover into everyday life

An important part of Speech and Language Therapy is generalisation — helping a child use developing language skills outside the therapy activity in which they were first practised.

Online therapy provides opportunities to work within the child’s familiar home environment and connect strategies directly to everyday life.

A strategy practised during therapy might later be used to:

• organise an answer to a homework question
• explain something that happened during the school day
• prepare what to say in a difficult conversation
• understand an unfamiliar word
• work out what somebody really means
• plan an oral presentation
• prepare for an interview
• ask for clarification when instructions are confusing

Parents can become an important part of this process by helping the young person notice opportunities to use the strategies they are developing.

The aim is not simply for a child to complete language exercises successfully.

The aim is for their communication strategies to become useful and increasingly independent in real life.

Why online therapy can work particularly well for older children and teenagers

DLD does not disappear when a child leaves primary school.

In fact, language demands often become increasingly complex during secondary school.

Young people are expected to:

• follow faster and more complex teaching
• understand subject-specific vocabulary
• interpret increasingly abstract language
• make inferences
• organise extended answers
• explain reasoning
• navigate more complicated friendships
• advocate for themselves
• manage examinations
• prepare for further education and employment

Online therapy can be particularly practical for this age group.

There is:

• no travelling to and from a clinic
• no waiting room
• less disruption to the school day
• the possibility of appointments after school, subject to availability
• less interference with homework and revision
• the ability to return immediately to dinner, revision, rest or family life when the session ends
• access to specialist 1:1 support from a familiar environment

For older children who already have demanding school schedules, this can make regular therapy significantly easier to sustain.

Language and academic progress

Some children with DLD understand far more about a subject than they are able to demonstrate through language.

They may struggle with the language required to:

• understand exam questions
• interpret words such as compare, justify, evaluate or explain
• identify the important part of a question
• organise an extended response
• understand implied information
• make links between ideas
• retrieve precise vocabulary
• explain cause and effect

Speech and Language Therapy can work on the underlying language skills involved in learning and demonstrating knowledge.

This is not subject tuition.

The aim is to help the young person understand and use language more effectively across subjects and everyday situations.

Support that grows with your child

For some children and teenagers, therapy goals need to look beyond the immediate school term.

Where appropriate, I can develop longer-term goals and break these down into smaller, manageable stages.

For a young person with DLD, longer-term goals might include:

• explaining ideas more confidently
• managing classroom discussion
• developing and maintaining friendships
• understanding more complex social situations
• communicating needs and boundaries
• preparing for GCSEs or further education
• preparing for interviews
• developing communication skills needed for employment
• asking for help or clarification independently
• understanding workplace instructions
• communicating more confidently with unfamiliar adults
• developing functional language skills for greater independence

The direction of therapy should reflect not only areas of difficulty but also what the young person wants their communication to help them achieve.

Social communication and relationships

DLD can affect more than academic language.

Some children and young people may also find it difficult to follow fast-moving conversations, understand implied meanings, keep track of what others are talking about or find the words to express themselves within friendships.

This can sometimes affect confidence, relationships or make a young person more vulnerable to misunderstandings.

Where this is relevant to your child’s profile, therapy can also work on:

• understanding intentions and implied meanings
• repairing misunderstandings
• explaining feelings and opinions
• asking for clarification
• recognising when they have not understood
• expressing disagreement appropriately
• communicating boundaries
• navigating increasingly complex social situations

Holistic, individualised support

I take a holistic approach to therapy.

Your child’s interests, motivations and ambitions can be incorporated into sessions so that language work connects with things that actually matter to them.

Family feedback is also important.

A formal assessment may identify the underlying language difficulty, but families often provide valuable information about how that difficulty affects everyday life.

Therapy goals may therefore bring together:

assessment findings + your child’s priorities + family observations + education needs + longer-term ambitions.

This allows therapy to remain structured while still reflecting the whole young person.

EHCP annual review support

For children and young people with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), I can provide Speech and Language Therapy input to support the annual review process where appropriate.

This may include:

• Speech and Language Therapy annual review reports
• reviewing current language and communication needs
• reporting progress
• recommendations for strategies and support
• recommendations relating to Speech and Language Therapy provision
• online attendance at annual review meetings

Reports provide a clear clinical account of the young person’s communication profile, current needs, progress and recommendations.

For parents of younger children

For some younger children with delayed language development, a parent-coaching approach may be more appropriate than asking the child to participate in regular direct therapy.

I am Hanen Certified in It Takes Two to Talk®, a structured parent programme designed to help parents support their child’s language development naturally through everyday interaction.

Parents learn practical strategies for:

• recognising how their child currently communicates
• creating opportunities for interaction
• following their child’s interests
• supporting back-and-forth interaction
• adapting the language they use
• helping their child understand and use more language during everyday routines and play

The programme combines parent group sessions with individual video-feedback sessions so strategies can be adapted to your own child.

Suitability depends on your child’s age and communication profile.

Explore It Takes Two to Talk®

Not sure whether online therapy is suitable?

Every child with DLD has a different language profile, and online therapy will not be the right approach for every child.

You can book a free 15-minute telephone consultation to tell me a little about your child, discuss your concerns and find out whether an online assessment may be an appropriate next step.