A well-functioning language ability is necessary for school success. Children and adolescents with language disorder have great difficulties reaching academic goals, and are at an increased risk for psychiatric disorders, problems with creating and maintaining social relationships and reduced employability as adults. To achieve active participation in school and society for these individuals, school personnel must be made aware of necessary changes in the teaching methods needed to create a language and communication fostering classroom environment. In ongoing research, funded by the Swedish Institute for Educational Research, our research group uses randomized, controlled trials to evaluate the effect of a practice-embedded intervention aimed at modifying mainstream primary school teachers’ verbal and nonverbal instructional communication on the core language abilities of the students in the teachers’ classes. In a project funded by the Swedish Research Council we examine to what extent school students diagnosed with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) are offered support in school, how this pedagogical support is perceived by students with DLD, and if something is missing in the schools’ management of these issues. We answer these questions using surveys and open records, as well as in-depth interviews with students with DLD, their caregivers, and their teachers. A subsample of the participants are also observed in school to allow detailed analyses of the interaction between the student with DLD, classmates, and teacher.

I am a speech-language pathologist since 2007 and earned my PhD in Clinical Medicine in 2013 at Lund University. I currently hold a position as researcher and lecturer at Logopedics, Phoniatrics & Audiology, Dept. of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University. Between 2016 and 2020 I was senior lecturer in special needs education at the Dept. of School Development & Leadership, Faculty of Education, Malmö University. Since 2018 I am Associate Professor in special needs education. My research centers on evaluation of the evidence base of intervention for language disorders, within speech-language pathology/therapy services as well as within educational settings.