A Diagnostic Tool for Developmental Language Disorder in Four to Six-Year-Old Children in the Luxembourgish Multilingual Context

Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is diagnosed when a child demonstrates persistent difficulties with vocabulary, phonology, morphology, syntax, and spoken communication across all used languages, in the absence of a broader developmental disorder. In Luxembourg, where many children have a first language (L1) other than Luxembourgish, it is essential to avoid over-identifying these children and under-identifying children with Luxembourgish as their L1, to ensure access to appropriate support. However, diagnostic challenges persist due to a lack of test materials that reflect Luxembourgish grammar and vocabulary, and the absence of reference norms calibrated to the local multilingual preschool population. The poster will review/discuss the tests that are currently used, delineating their unsuitability for the Luxembourgish context and demonstrate the need for a new standardized and normed test battery.