The 2019 conference theme ‘Growing up with Developmental Language Disorder’ was a huge success.

The day was opened by Juliet Wright, a young person with DLD, who very powerfully expressed the experience of being a young person with DLD.

The other speakers were a combination of research and practice looking at the pathway of DLD in terms of its presentation, services and interventions.

Key learning points included:

• self awareness of DLD is crucial;
• YP with identified DLD do better than those who have identified needs;
• language needs at 4 years will continue, so intervention needs to be functional;
• language interventions can still be successful at secondary school;
• early years is crucial, but we need to look closely at the interventions, as what we think might work does not always work;
• collaboration is key.