Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Multicenter Study
. 2017 Oct;58(10):1068-1080.
doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12721. Epub 2017 Mar 30.

Phase 2 of CATALISE: a multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study of problems with language development: Terminology

Dorothy V M Bishop  1 , Margaret J Snowling  1 , Paul A Thompson  1 , Trisha Greenhalgh  2 ; and the CATALISE-2 consortium
Collaborators, Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Phase 2 of CATALISE: a multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study of problems with language development: Terminology

Dorothy V M Bishop et al. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2017 Oct.

Abstract

Background: Lack of agreement about criteria and terminology for children's language problems affects access to services as well as hindering research and practice. We report the second phase of a study using an online Delphi method to address these issues. In the first phase, we focused on criteria for language disorder. Here we consider terminology.

Methods: The Delphi method is an iterative process in which an initial set of statements is rated by a panel of experts, who then have the opportunity to view anonymised ratings from other panel members. On this basis they can either revise their views or make a case for their position. The statements are then revised based on panel feedback, and again rated by and commented on by the panel. In this study, feedback from a second round was used to prepare a final set of statements in narrative form. The panel included 57 individuals representing a range of professions and nationalities.

Results: We achieved at least 78% agreement for 19 of 21 statements within two rounds of ratings. These were collapsed into 12 statements for the final consensus reported here. The term 'Language Disorder' is recommended to refer to a profile of difficulties that causes functional impairment in everyday life and is associated with poor prognosis. The term, 'Developmental Language Disorder' (DLD) was endorsed for use when the language disorder was not associated with a known biomedical aetiology. It was also agreed that (a) presence of risk factors (neurobiological or environmental) does not preclude a diagnosis of DLD, (b) DLD can co-occur with other neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g. ADHD) and (c) DLD does not require a mismatch between verbal and nonverbal ability.

Conclusions: This Delphi exercise highlights reasons for disagreements about terminology for language disorders and proposes standard definitions and nomenclature.

Keywords: Developmental language disorder; definitions; risk factors; specific language impairment; terminology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow chart illustrating pathways to diagnosis of language disorder. Numbers in square brackets refer to Statements in the Results section
Figure 2
Figure 2
Venn diagram illustrating relationship between different diagnostic terms. DLD is nested within the broader SLCN category
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Adams, C. (2002). Practitioner review: The assessment of language pragmatics. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 43, 973–987. - PubMed
    1. Adams, C. (2008). Intervention for children with pragmatic language impairments: Frameworks, evidence and diversity In Norbury C.F., Tomblin J.B. & Bishop D.V.M. (Eds.), Understanding developmental language disorders. Hove, UK: Psychology Press.
    1. American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th edn). Arlington, VA: Author.
    1. Archibald, L.M. , & Gathercole, S.E. (2006). Short‐term and working memory in specific language impairment. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 41, 675–693. - PubMed
    1. Baird, G. , & Norbury, C.F. (2016). Social (pragmatic) communication disorders and autism spectrum disorder. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 101, 745–751. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms