Developmental language disorder (DLD) is a condition in which individuals experience significant language difficulties for no obvious reason. DLD impacts a person’s ability to understand and produce language. It occurs in the absence of other conditions, such as hearing impairment, intellectual disability or neurological disorder, that could explain the language difficulties.
In children, DLD is diagnosed beyond the age of five, when the language difficulties experienced from earlier years do not show promise of full recovery. It should be noted that DLD spans into adulthood and is a life-long condition, though speech and language therapy often ameliorates the effects of DLD.
Despite being unobvious, this language disorder can result in limited vocabulary, misunderstanding of questions and difficulty following instructions. Those individuals with DLD may also find it challenging to form grammatically correct sentences and often have trouble finding the right words during conversations.
A diagnosis of DLD can only be given following a comprehensive assessment by a speech and language pathologist (SLP). In this assessment, the SLP would evaluate the child’s receptive and expressive language skills in different contexts, taking their developmental history into account and ruling out other potential causes for their language difficulties.
Children with DLD may struggle to establish and maintain friendships due to their difficulties with social communication, as a result of their impaired language skills. This can lead to feelings of isolation and low self-esteem. Moreover, the effects of DLD extend beyond communication challenges.
Individuals with DLD often face academic difficulties, especially in literacy, since language is crucial for the development of such skills. Additionally, in the long run, individuals with DLD may also encounter obstacles in furthering their education and finding employment, as the language demands of these settings can be quite challenging.
To support these individuals, speech and language therapists often adapt conventional toys and games for therapeutic purposes, modifying resources available on the market to accommodate the varied needs of their clients within the local context. However, there is a distinct lack of SALTTs (speech and language therapeutic toys) that cater for the bilingual Maltese-English population.
“Children with DLD may struggle to establish and maintain friendships due to their difficulties with social communication”
To address the scarcity of local SALTTs and the multifaceted challenges faced by individuals diagnosed with DLD, local researchers from the University of Malta and game developers have been collaborating on designing a board game and a companion app for use within the Maltese bilingual context.
The point of this initiative, entitled SALTT-CITY, is to address the challenges associated with the treatment of DLD in bilingual Maltese-English-speaking children aged five to eight. Therefore, this tool aims to target receptive and expressive language difficulties in both Maltese and English.
Its app collects data on children’s performance during speech and language therapy sessions, which SLPs can then use to track their clients’ progress. This data can also be used to assess the effectiveness of this technology-based intervention for DLD, creating a smart city environment by utilising data collected from different clinics.
At the time of writing, the board game and companion app have been prototyped in the local bilingual context, specifically in the Maltese and English languages. Preliminary evaluation of the user experiences of children, caregivers and SLPs has underlined the potential benefits of such an approach and motivated a clear need to develop innovative intervention solutions for children with DLD who are receiving speech and language therapy.
The team at the University of Malta is being led by Prof. Inġ. Philip Farrugia, from the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, and includes Prof. Inġ. Owen Casha from the Department of Microelectronics and Nanoelectronics, Prof. Inġ. Simon Fabri from the Department of Systems and Control Engineering, Prof. Helen Grech, Prof. Daniela Gatt, Donia Stellini from the Department of Human Communication Sciences and Disorders, and Inġ. Edward Abela from the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. Anthony Demanuele and his team from Flying Squirrel Games are also collaborating on the SALTT-CITY project, which is being funded through the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) Smart Cities Programme (project reference no. SCP-2022-007).
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