Social variables as risk factors, protective factors and difficulties resulting from Developmental Language Disorder: A holistic view

Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) can be defined as a persistent language difficulty which affects the lives of individuals who experience it. Among the most frequent risk and protective factors of this disorder, we identify gender, prematurity or a possible genetic influence. However, another group of social variables is also related to DLD. These social variables include familial, sociocultural and economic elements, which especially affect the quality and the amount of linguistic input that children receive, influencing both language acquisition and development. In this article, we address these variables from a holistic and integrative perspective and discuss how they can be considered as risk and protective factors of DLD. The effect they experience from the presence of this disorder is also considered.