Schools are basically invisible to girls with language disabilities, even when they’re struggling just as hard as the boys in their class.
April 10, 2026
Original Paper
Sex differences in special education language services in U.S. schools
PsyArXiv · 5q6ax_v1
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The Takeaway
Although boys and girls suffer from developmental language disorders at nearly the same rate, girls are up to 40% less likely to receive help. This suggests that unless a girl's grades suffer significantly more than a boy's, her clinical needs go unnoticed by the system.
From the abstract
Under U.S. law, students with developmental language disorder (DLD) may qualify for special education services under the categories “speech-language impairment” or “specific learning disorder”. Girls receive these services ~50% less often than boys; however, community samples reveal near parity in DLD prevalence by sex. Using longitudinal data from >1.6 million students, we tested three hypotheses for this service gap. In part, the gap is justified: we found that fewer girls than boys need these