Iceland

Services for children with developmental language disorder (DLD) in Iceland were first provided in the second half of the nineteenth century when they were associated with services for deaf children. In 1867 a school was established for children with hearing and language deficits named Heyrnar-og Málleysingjaskólinn (The school for deaf and mute children). Children with DLD had access to the school until 1962, when it was reorganised and renamed as a school only for deaf children (Magnúsdóttir and Ingimarsdóttir, 1984). In 1908 legislation securing compulsory education for all children between 10 and 14 years of age was passed and this included children with severe language learning difficulties. In 1934, a proposal was submitted and discussed in the Icelandic parliament on establishing a new school for blind, deaf and language-impaired children. There were no speech and language therapists (SLTs) practising in Iceland at the time (Lárusdóttir, 1934). Four Icelanders began their training in 1935–1937 and studied speech and language therapy (SLT) in Denmark: Björg Forchhammer, Ólafía Jóhannsdóttir, Hólmfríður Hemmert and Brandur Jónsson. The last two were hired as teachers in the school for children with hearing and language deficits after their studies, and Ólafía was the first SLT to work within the compulsory schools in Reykjavík but only from 1938 to 1940 (Kristjánsson, 1958). A few Icelandic-speaking children with DLD went to Denmark to the Speech Institute in Copenhagen for speech therapy (Guðmundsson, 1954).