Research with English-speaking populations has shown that there is a relationship between developmental language disorder (DLD) and emergent literacy skills in children. A small number of Arabic studies have indirectly investigated this relationship in typically developing (TD) children, and children with reading difficulties, and demonstrated the important role of morphosyntactic skills in Arabic reading acquisition. However, none of the previous work has examined the relationship between oral language and emergent literacy skills in children with and without DLD. The aims of this study are twofold: to investigate the language and emergent literacy skills of Saudi Arabic children with DLD aged between 4;0– 6;11 years of age; to compare their performance to age and socioeconomic status matched TD children, and to investigate the relationship between language and emergent literacy skills in both groups. A comprehensive Arabic language and emergent literacy battery was administered. Findings demonstrated that the TD group significantly outperformed the DLD group on most emergent literacy tasks. The DLD group was significantly less accurate than TD group on syllable segmentation, and phoneme awareness skills. There were significant associations between oral language skills and emergent literacy skills in the DLD group. In TD group, vocabulary knowledge and syntactic skills were associated with some emergent literacy skills. Syntactic skills were found to have moderately significant relationship with all emergent literacy skills in both groups. This might suggest the important role of morphosyntactic skills to literacy development in Arabic. Overall, findings were consistent with existing literature, and demonstrated strong relationships between oral language and emergent literacy skills in the Arabic language.

Purpose: This commentary describes a multi-national project which addresses gaps in the design and delivery of health and education services in Arabic-speaking countries in relation to early language development, with a focus on Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories. This includes: (1) co-production with early years professionals and NGOs of approaches to support early language development; (2) development and standardisation of tools to identify monolingual and multilingual Arabic-speaking children at risk of poor language development; and (3) examination of language development in refugee communities. Result: The importance of inter-professional partnership and the inclusion of families in planning support for oral language development is highlighted. Arabic versions of the Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) Toddler were developed, and data collected from 1074 Egyptian, Jordanian and Palestinian monolingual infants aged 8–30 months. Data from 201 age-matched Palestinian infants in Lebanese refugee camps highlight inequalities resulting from limited maternal educational opportunities. Data from 230 multilingual Lebanese 2-year-olds enable the interpretation of CDI scores as a function of language exposure. Conclusion: This work contributes to the promotion of robust language development for all Arabic-speaking children. This commentary focusses on sustainable development goal (SDG) 3, SDG 4, SDG 10 and SDG 17.

Purpose: Although children with developmental language disorder (DLD) are known to have difficulties with emergent literacy skills, few available studies have examined emergent literacy skills in Arabic-speaking children with DLD. Even though Arabic language characteristics, such as diglossia and orthographic structure, influence the acquisition of literacy in Arabic-speaking children, research shows that oral language skills, such as vocabulary, and cognitive skills, such as verbal short-term memory (VSTM), predict literacy in Arabic-speaking children. Moreover, linguistic and memory abilities are impaired in children with DLD, including Arabic-speaking children. The current study examines the relationships between oral language, VSTM, and emergent literacy skills in Arabic-speaking typically developing (TD) children and children with DLD. Method: Participants were 40 TD children (20 girls; aged 4;0–6;11 [years;months]) and 26 children with DLD (nine girls, aged 4;0–6;11). All participants were monolingual Arabic speakers and matched on age and socioeconomic status. A set of comprehensive Arabic language (vocabulary knowledge, morphosyntactic, and listening comprehension skills), VSTM, and emergent literacy (phonological awareness and letter knowledge skills) tests were administered. Results: The DLD group scored significantly lower than the TD group on language, VSTM, and emergent literacy measures. Results revealed that the contributions of oral language and VSTM to emergent literacy skills across TD and DLD groups were different. In the TD group, VSTM predicted emergent literacy skills, whereas in the DLD groups, both vocabulary knowledge and VSTM predicted emergent literacy skills. Conclusions: This study represents an important first step in understanding emergent literacy skills and their relationships to language and memory in Arabic-speaking children with and without DLD. The implications of these findings for clinical and education provision are discussed.

Background/Objectives: This study examined knowledge, attitudes, comfort, perceived usefulness, and institutional context regarding artificial intelligence (AI) among speech–language pathology (SLP) students and clinicians in Saudi Arabia. Methods: This exploratory cross-sectional online survey used a questionnaire informed by Austin et al. and was distributed through snowball sampling. Data from 122 participants (75 students, 16 interns, and 31 practicing clinicians) were analyzed. Groups were compared using Kruskal–Wallis tests with Holm correction and linear regression with HC3-robust standard errors adjusted for gender and frequency of ChatGPT use. Results: The majority (97.5%) of the participants had used ChatGPT, and 77% used it three or more times per week, yet self-rated knowledge was moderate. Comfort with AI was moderate to high, and concern about AI replacing SLPs was low to moderate. The participants were uncertain about AI’s ability to administer and analyze assessments and rated administrative tasks as its most useful application. After Holm correction, only perceived usefulness differed across the three group comparisons, with interns rating it higher than students. Across 16 adjusted group comparisons, only perceived student academic use was rated higher by interns than by students. No group differences were significant among participants aged 18–24 years. Most participants (70.5%) reported having no institutional AI guidelines. Conclusions: Participants used AI frequently and held generally positive but cautious views, with few group differences. These findings support AI literacy training in SLP curricula and SLP-specific guidelines for responsible AI use.