Description of the visual perception skills of children aged 4-6 with developmental language disorder and typical development

The aim of this study is to describe and compare the visual perception skills of children with typical development (TD) and developmental language disorder (DLD). The sample of the study consists of 60 children with typical development (n=30) and developmental language disorder (n=30) aged between 48-72 months. The Frostig Visual Perception Test was administered to children who met the inclusion criteria. SPSS program was used in the analysis of the data. As a result of the analysis, it was seen that the Frostig Visual Perception Test subtests and general scores of the children with TD were significantly higher than the children with DLD. The results indicated a positive significant relationship between language skills and visual perception skills of children with DLD. The visual perception subtests scores of children with DLD who received therapy for 6-months or longer were significantly higher than those who received therapy for less than 6-months. No significant effect of gender was observed except for the figure-ground discrimination subtest in children with TD. Gender does not have a significant effect on visual perception skills in children with DLD. Eye-motor coordination, figure-ground discrimination, perception of position in space subtests and general scores of children with DLD who score below the expected level in the TEDİL expressive language subtest are higher than the children who score below the expected level in both receptive and expressive language subtests. It was found that the initiation time of children with DLD after the instruction given to the Frostig Visual Perception Test subtests were significantly shorter than the children with TD. Considering the findings obtained from the study, it was concluded that the inclusion of visual perception skills in the evaluation and intervention processes of children with DLD would positively affect their development.