Millmount lights up to mark Language Disorder Day

Millmount Museum will light up yellow and purple this weekend, to mark the 4th annual International Developmental Language Disorder Awareness Day which will take place this Friday. Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is one of the most common childhood conditions you have never heard of and people of Ireland are being called upon to #DLDSeeMe.

It is estimated that 85,000 children in Ireland – and one in 14 people - are living with the life-long condition and landmarks right across Ireland and the world will light up in purple and yellow on the day

Drogheda boy Robert Mockler (12) has recently spoken out about living with DLD from his perspective.

‘Sometimes people think you don’t make sense when you’re talking, but sometimes when I’m speaking to people without DLD they don’t make any sense to me,’ explains Robert. ‘In my day-to-day life, it’s hard, because it messes with your emotions and it can make you agitated. And there are things that other people can do, like they can just start writing a story off the bat, but I have to take a couple of minutes to even think of my first paragraph.’

Louth County Council offices in Dundalk is joining the many other national landmarks lighting up around the country. DLD is more common that other well recognised neurodevelopmental disorders such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

To find out more about DLD, resources are available from RADLD at their website www. radld.org. RADLD also have a lovely animated video which explains DLD, available at: https:// biteable.com/watch/radld-2019-2357730. If you are on Twitter you can find out more about the campaign and the activities that are happening internationally by searching for the hashtags #devlangdis #DLDSeeMe.