Predictors of school concern across the transition to secondary school with developmental language disorder and low language ability: A longitudinal developmental cascade analysis.

What is already known on the subject There is limited research exploring the transition from primary school to secondary for adolescents with DLD or LL ability. Research on TD has highlighted vulnerable domains at this time. As these key areas are evidenced spheres of difficulty in DLD and LL, there was a strong impetus for this study. What this paper adds to existing knowledge This study reveals differences between language ability groups in the predictors of school concern both pre- and post-transition. Concerns of adolescents with DLD were predicted by emotion recognition, those of adolescents with LL were predicted by emotional well-being, and a longitudinal link between social competence and emotional well-being was evidenced for TD adolescents. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? This study has implications for researchers and clinicians, as a need has been identified for a new clinical group. It also has practical implications for transition support planning for educational practitioners, families and adolescents.