Auditory Electrophysiological Findings in Children with Developmental Language Disorder: A Systematic Review

Background/Objectives: Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is a persistent neurodevelopmental condition with an estimated prevalence of 7% in preschoolers. It is characterized by significant impairments in language acquisition and use, in the absence of an identified biomedical cause. The potential link between DLD and central auditory processing has encouraged the investigation of auditory evoked potentials as research tools; however, the existing literature remains notably dispersed and heterogeneous. To systematically synthesize evidence concerning auditory electrophysiological findings in children with DLD. Methods: Systematic searches were conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus for studies published between January 2016 and March 2026. Keywords were combined using AND/OR operators. Two independent reviewers performed screening and data extraction, with discrepancies resolved through consensus. Risk of bias was assessed using the JBI tool for analytical cross-sectional studies. A structured narrative synthesis (SWiM) was applied to the findings. Results: Seven studies were included, with a combined total of 480 participants across all enrolled samples (including DLD, control, and other clinical subgroups), aged 2 years and 11 months to 10 years. The Frequency Following Response (FFR) appeared to show greater sensitivity, with alterations in both temporal components (waves C and D) and spectral components (F0 and F2), particularly under noise conditions. Findings for click-ABR were inconsistent across studies, suggesting limited sensitivity in cases of isolated DLD. Long-latency auditory evoked potentials (N2 and P300) exhibited prolonged latencies, potentially reflecting cortical immaturity and impaired attentional discrimination. The N400 potential suggested delayed or atypical semantic processing in a single investigation. Conclusions: The available evidence points toward a pattern of impairment in individuals with DLD that requires cautious interpretation, potentially encompassing subcortical, cortical, and linguistic encoding. Methodological heterogeneity across studies, combined with the absence of adolescent samples, highlights significant gaps in the current research regarding electrophysiology and DLD. FFR and Long-Latency Auditory Evoked Potentials (LLAEP/P300) assessments may warrant further investigation as auxiliary electrophysiological measures for the characterization of DLD, pending replication in larger and more homogeneous samples.