Understanding the prevalence and manifestation of the anxiety and social difficulties experienced by children with Developmental Language Disorder.

Abstract Background It is well-documented that children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) experience socio-emotional difficulties. Despite this, there is little consensus as to how these difficulties manifest. This study aims to understand their prevalence, and inform intervention development by understanding the relationships between them. Methods A mixed-methods, case-control study was conducted. First, an online survey was completed by 107 parents of either children with DLD (‘DLD sample’; n = 57), or typically developing children (‘typical sample’; n = 50), aged 6–12 years old. The online survey comprised of standardised psychosocial measures, binary psychosocial statements (generated from previous qualitative work) and both family stress and coping mechanisms. Two separate mediation models were run to understand the underlying mechanisms behind (1) anxiety, and (2) social frustration; separate correlation analyses were used to determine the relationships between other psychosocial and familial variables. Qualitative interviews were then carried out with a small subset of the survey respondents (n = 4). Results The DLD sample scored significantly higher on all psychosocial statements than the typical sample. Experiencing anxiety (80.7%, p < 0.05), requiring routine and sameness (75.4%, p < 0.001) and emotional dysregulation (75.4%; p < 0.001) were the most common difficulties for children with DLD. Family stress and coping mechanisms only correlated with the manifestation of psychosocial difficulties in the typical group, not the DLD group. ‘Intolerance of uncertainty’ was found to fully mediate the relationship between DLD diagnosis and symptoms of anxiety. Emotion regulation was found to moderately mediate the relationship between DLD diagnosis and social frustration. Conclusions Parents appear to cope well with their children’s complex psychosocial needs. Intervention focussing on intolerance of uncertainty and emotion dysregulation may help the management of psychosocial difficulties. Further research is needed to understand the children’s preference for routine.