[Developmental language disorder in children of severely dysfunctional families]

Developmental language disorder (DLD) is the most common type of language disorder and involves difficulty in comprehending oral language (receptive type) or in expressing verbal language (expressive type). The relationship between DLD encountered in general practice and severe family dysfunction was evaluated. Severely dysfunctional families are characterized by chronic and persistent conflicts, absence of closeness and lack of trust between parents, bad relations between parents and children, and lack of parental support. 20 children, 3.6% of a study population of 550 children aged 3-5 years, were found to be suffering from DLD. The proportion of boys with this disorder from severely dysfunctional families was considerably higher than from control families (73.5% vs 9.5%, p less than 0.0001). In girls, the excess of those from severely dysfunctional families was smaller, and the difference was not significant (20.3% vs 6.6%, p greater than 0.3). Mean years of education of fathers of children with DLD was significantly less than that of fathers of control families (p = 0.04), and less than that of mothers of children with DLD (not significant, but control sample small). It was also less than that of mothers of control families (p = 0.02). In control families there was no difference between the education of fathers and of mothers. The excess of cases of DLD in dysfunctional families was significantly greater when there were more than 4 children in the families (p = 0.01). There was a predominance of the expressive as compared to the receptive type of DLD. Early detection of severely dysfunctional families and of children with DLD may promote early intervention and increase effectiveness of treatment.