DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRESSION
OF LANGUAGE SKILLS IN SLI
Specific language impairment is characterized
by language difficulties from the outset of the
language-learning process. Instead of reaching
developmental language milestones on schedule
(first words between 12 and 24 months, word
combinations between 24 and 30 months of age),
children with SLI are slow from the beginning.
It is a hallmark of SLI that these children are
late talkers: they are late in acquiring their first
words and in putting together their first word
combinations. It is not the case that children with
SLI start developing language normally and then
stop and become delayed or lose what they have
learned. Occurrence of ‘language loss’ in infancy
is reported in some children with autism spectrum
disorders (ASD) but
not
in children with SLI. This
feature appears to distinguish between the two
disorders [9], and can be particularly useful for
the differential diagnosis between SLI and ASD
in the preschool period. In childhood, difficulties
with the sound system of the language, that is,
phonology, can co-occur with SLI. However, by
middle childhood problems with sound production
are usually resolved or less evident (unless there
are oral-facial motor difficulties/apraxia), and
most children with SLI are intelligible.
It used to be thought that SLI was a short-
term difficulty in language learning that, with
support, could be resolved by the early school
years. Although this is true for a proportion of
children experiencing transient language delay
(approximately 40%), developmental follow-up
studies have shown that children with SLI have per-
sisting language difficulties well into adolescence
and even adulthood [10]. Research on the growth
trajectories of language-impaired individuals from
childhood to adolescence is only just emerging. The
evidence suggests that children with SLI show simi-
lar, parallel patterns of language growth in compar-
ison with their typically developing peers. The level
of language that children with SLI reach at 7 years
in relation to their peers is predictive of their level
of language attainment in middle childhood and
adolescence. As a group, individuals with SLI do
not ‘catch up’ with their peers nor do they fall fur-
ther behind. Children with SLI develop language
at a strikingly similar rate to their typically devel-
oping peers, maintaining the degree of attainment/
impairment they experienced in childhood (Conti-
Ramsden
et al
., unpublished).
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