engleski

Public awareness of developmental language disorders in Croatia

Awareness of and knowledge about developmental language disorder (DLD) is a key component for successful prevention, early detection and timely intervention. Very often proper information is either not sufficiently widespread or lacks consistency. The first step towards increasing public awareness is to gain estimated perception of the current situation on the matter. The aim of this study was to obtain the data on the level of awareness and knowledge of DLD and to examine whether there are differences between the respondents’ awareness in terms of age and level of education. The sample consisted of 81 respondents (40 male and 41 female) ; 26 belonging to the younger age group (18-39), 27 to the middle age group (40-59) and 26 to the older age group (60-70+). Half of the respondents (40) had higher, and half (41) lower level of education. Subjects voluntarily completed a Public Survey developed within the WG 3 of the COST Action IS1406. It consisted of 29 questions and statements divided into two parts: general information, and awareness of and information about DLD. The data from 9 questions have been analysed as they relate to the main aim. The results show that 67, 9% of respondents claim to have heard of the term. Still, majority of them does not know how to define it. 51, 9% of respondents have heard about therapy for DLD, and these same people consider speech-language pathologist to be the person responsible for assessment and service delivery. Respondents see education in schools (95, 1%) and informative lectures (93, 8%) as the best means of distributing information and raising public awareness. The results show that age and education are factors that significantly affect the level of public awareness. Respondents from the middle age group, and having higher level of education are more aware and have more knowledge.

Developmental language disorder ; Public awareness ; Public survey ; Age differences ; Education

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