The project aimed to a) determine the psycholinguistic profiles of children attending language units in England, b) investigate their social-emotional well-being and c) gather teacher opinion regarding the nature of the children’s difficulties and their educational placement. The Manchester Language Study (MLS) began in 1995 and spans approximately 20 years from childhood to early adulthood. This collection includes data related to the first cohort recruited for this longitudinal study when the children participating were approximately 7 years of age. Language units at that time were specialized classes for children who had been identified with developmental language disorders (DLD), i.e., language difficulties are the main concern for these children. Language unit placements were offered to children who, even with support, would find it difficult to cope in mainstream education. These children are deemed to need a structured small group setting with intensive language input that usually involves both teachers and speech and language therapists. The data for this cohort in early adulthood is published and available in ReShare (publication reference 852066, link provided under Related resources).

The first cohort of the MLS consisted of 242 children that were recruited from 118 language units across England and represented a random sample of 50% of all seven-year-olds attending language units for at least half of the school week. Local Authority Education departments, Special Educational Needs Coordinators and language unit teachers were contacted directly by the researchers.In this study, 186 boys and 56 girls (girls thus formed 23.1% of the cohort) participated. Data collection included direct assessment of children's verbal and nonverbal abilities using standardised tests. The psycholinguistic tests were administered in a single sitting by one researcher and each child was tested individually (where possible in a separate room). In addition, teachers filled a questionnaire regarding children's social-emotional well-being. Finally, teachers and speech and language therapists were interviewed regarding children's difficulties and other areas related to children's educational needs.