Table 2

Summary of studies reporting risk factors associated with developmental language disorder

Author (year)	Study design	Sampling strategy	Country, city	Setting	Age group	Screening tool	Methods of data collection	Type of association tested	Sample size	Risk factors
Eapen et al (2004)17	Cross sectional	Random stratified sampling	UAE, Al Ain, Dubai, Ras Alkhaima	National households	3 years	Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST) + language screening procedure for 3-year-olds by Westerlund and Sundelin	Face to face	Adjusted OR	694	Previous non-UAE nationality of the mother, lower total monthly income of the family.
Safwat et al (2014)29	Cross-sectional	Unclear	Eygpt, Cairo	Hospital, phoniatric unit	27–49 months	Protocol of language assessment applied at Kasr Al Aini	Face to face	Correlation	100	Lower parents’ interaction score, lower socioeconomic status.
Al-Fadhliet al (2017)22	Cross-sectional	Unclear	Saudi Arabia, Eastern Province	Community (unclear where the community sample was drawn from)	3–5 years	Arabic Ages and Stages Questionnaire (A-ASQ)	Not clear	χ² test	1235	Younger age, male gender, family history of language delay, using forceps in delivery, not having siblings, lower maternal education, parents’ work status, mothers spending less than 2 hours with the child daily, child spending most of their time playing alone or with electronic devices, child watching more than 4 hours of TV daily.
Saeed et al (2018)40	Cross-sectional	Convenience sample	Iraq, Baghdad	Hospital, psychiatry clinic	<7 years	Developmental Milestones by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)	Face to face	χ² test	353	Male gender, family history of speech delay
Hala et al (2018)	Case-control	Convenience sample	Egypt, Assiut	Hospital, Phoniatric Clinic	3–5 years	Diagnosed by a physician	Face to face	OR	300 (150 cases, 150 controls)	Male gender, urban, low birth weight, caesarean section, consanguineous marriage, child exposure to cyanosis, family history of developmental language delay, preterm delivery, birth order.
El-Din et al (2019)32	Case-control	Convenience sample	Egypt, Cairo	Hospital, paediatric clinic and the National Research Centre	18–36 months	Infant and toddler development (Bayley-III)	Face to face	OR	655 (360 cases, 295 controls)	Early introduction of complementary food, low family income, history of delivery problems, pregnancy-related diseases of the mother, maternal education, impaired motor development
Youssef et al (2020)33	Cross-sectional	Convenience sample	Egypt, Assiut, Helwan	Two hospitals	mean age: 5 years	Arabic language test	Not clear	χ² test	212	Iron deficiency anaemia does not seem to have an effect on language development in preschool Egyptian Children
Alakeely et al (2022)37	Cross-sectional	Convenience sample	Saudi Arabia, Riyadh	Well-baby clinics	1–5 years	CDC-validated Arabic language milestone screening test	Face to face	χ² test	250	Children who are not breastfed
Alroqi et al (2023)38	Cross- sectional	Convenience sample	Saudi Arabia	Households	Less than 3 years	JISH Arabic Communicative Development Inventory	Online and by phone	Adjusted OR	85	Screen media context (less interactive, lower language score), screen time (longer, lower language score), age (younger, worse language score), reading prevalence (less reading, lower language score), media quantity (worse screen media use practices, lower language score).
Khattab et al (2023)42	Cross- sectional	(Palestine and Jordan) Stratified sampling using census data (Egypt and Lebanon) Not clear	Egypt, Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon	General population	8–30 months	Arabic Communicative Development Inventory	face to face and online	Predictor model	1074 (Egypt, Jordan and Palestine) 431 (Lebanon)	Predictor variables: age, gender, maternal education, country
Aziz et al (2023)41	Cross-sectional	Unclear	Iraq, Nineveh Province	Private psychiatric health clinics	12–60 months	Diagnosed by linguistic specialists	Face to face	χ² and Student’s t-tests	237	Early screen exposure (<24 months), prolonged screen time (≥4 hours/day).
Al Hosani et al (2023)39	Case-control	convenience sample	UAE	Well-baby clinics	12–48 months	The receptive-expressive emergent language test and early signs of language and speech disorders.	Face to face	Adjusted OR	454 (227 cases, 227 controls)	Owning a device, early onset of using electronic devices, total TV viewing hours per day.
Metwally et al (2023)34	Cross- sectional	Multistage cluster random sampling technique	Egypt, Cairo, Fayoum, Assuit, Aswan, Damietta, Dakahlia, Gharbia and Marsa Matrouh	Households	12–71 months	The revised Denver Prescreening Developmental Questionnaire Arabic adapted version and DDST, second edition	Face to face	Adjusted OR	21 316	Male gender, urban resident, middle social class, lower parents’ educational levels, low birth weight, difficult labour, neonatal jaundice, postnatal cyanosis, postnatal convulsion, neonatal intensive care unit admission.
Sami (2024)35	Cross- sectional	Unclear	Egypt, Cairo	School	5–6 years	Preschool Language Scales Fifth Edition and Receptive Expressive Arabic Language Scale	Face to face	Paired t-test	46	Bilingualism did not negatively impact language development in Egyptian children