Comorbidity in children with severe developmental language disability

In a cohort of 2359 children, screened for severe developmental language disability (DLD) at 3 y of age, 45 children were identified as true positives. The development, concerning DLD and comorbidity of 41 of these children still living in the municipality of Uppsala was followed up to school start. Criteria for comorbidity were: (a) suspected or diagnosed neuropsychiatric/neurodevelopmental disability according to information from the Child Habilitation Centre and the Child Psychiatric Centre or (b) low performance IQ, signs of activity/distractibility problems according to a psychologist's examination. By school start, 61% of the children with severe DLD were identified with comorbidity.

Severe DLD is often combined with other disabilities within the neuropsychiatric/neurodevelopmental spectra. The comorbidity might not be obvious at 3 y of age--the age at which severe DLD is effectively identified by the 3-y screening programme. This in turn stresses the necessity of multidisciplinary teamwork both at the referral level and during the therapy work.