DLD - Developmental Language Disorder | Speech Sound Play with Phonemies

10-Day Dyslexia 'Screen & Intervene' Plan with MySpeekie®: Develop speech sound awareness through Phonemies Play, supporting children before or alongside systematic synthetic phonics (SSP). The Speech Sound Mapping (SSM) Plan is also available as a stand-alone option for children with SLCN.

What is Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)?

Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is a condition that affects how children learn, understand, and use language. It is not caused by hearing problems, intellectual disability, or lack of exposure to language. Children with DLD may struggle to express themselves clearly or understand what others are saying, which can impact learning, social skills, and self-esteem.

DLD is more common than you might think — it affects around 1 in 14 children.

Signs of DLD might include:

Difficulty finding the right words
Struggling to form sentences
Trouble understanding instructions
Challenges with reading and writing

Support can make a big difference. With the right help, children with DLD can thrive at school and in life.

Helping Adults Talk So Children Understand – Including Those with DLD

Through her work supporting thousands of teachers across Australia, Miss Emma, known to many as The Nerodivergent Reading Whisperer, noticed something important.
Adults were often speaking to children in ways that many simply could not understand. This was especially true for children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD).

Teachers would ask questions like:

"What sound does this letter make?"
"This is a long vowel."

But for a child, especially one who is still learning language, these phrases can be confusing.
Letters are just squiggles on a page. They do not have mouths. They cannot make sounds.
And what is a vowel? Why is it called long? Is it like a piece of string?

Even when adults mean well, they often use language that assumes children already understand abstract ideas. For many children, especially those with DLD, this makes learning more difficult than it needs to be.

Miss Emma’s Solution

To address this, Miss Emma developed a range of approaches including:

Speech Sound Pics (SSP) – designed to introduce phonics in neurodiverse classroom settings
Speech Sound Play – a playful, multisensory way to explore speech, print and meaning
The Phonemies Family and Story Speekie Peeps – friendly characters that help children engage with language at their level

These tools help all children, including those with SLCN and DLD, access the building blocks of language and literacy in a way that is simple, playful and clear.

Workshops for Adults

But the work does not stop with the children.

We offer workshops for adults – teachers, parents and carers – to support clearer, more effective communication with children. These sessions are practical, engaging and based on real classroom and home experience.

In our workshops, we show adults how to:

Use simpler, clearer ways to explain tricky ideas
Break down everyday language so children can follow and respond
Create learning environments where every child feels confident and included

This is not just about helping children read or speak. It is about helping them understand what is being asked of them, and why. When children understand more, they can do more, and feel better about learning.

When we change the way we talk, we change what children can understand.