Focus on Practice: Educational placements and National Curriculum Key Stage 2 test outcomes of children with a history of specific language impairment

The impact of specific language impairment (SLI) on the acquisition of literacy and numeracy skills has been well researched. In contrast little has been written on its impact on the third core subject in the National Curriculum (NC) of science and this article describes a preliminary investigation into the scientific reasoning skills of children with SLI in comparison with those of typically developing (TD) children. In individual assessment sessions 11 pairs of target children with SLI and control TD children in the Key Stage (KS) 2 age span (ages 7–11 years) undertook a series of scientific reasoning tasks appropriate to their age involving receptive and expressive language skills. The children with SLI had for the most part significantly more difficulty with expressive language tasks (ELTs) than the TD children, in spite of the provision of scaffolding, and there was some evidence that they also had greater difficulty with the production of causal connectives, e.g. because, so. However, there was no difference between the two groups on receptive language tasks (RLTs) when scaffolding was used. Some possible implications for pedagogy are considered in light of these findings, and problems in matching children with SLI and TD controls are discussed.

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A longitudinal study of behavioral, emotional and social difficulties in individuals with a history of specific language impairment (SLI)

Journal of Communication Disorders ◽

10.1016/j.jcomdis.2010.09.004 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 44 (2) ◽

pp. 186-199 ◽

Cited By ~ 175

Author(s):

Michelle C. St Clair ◽

Andrew Pickles ◽

Kevin Durkin ◽

Gina Conti-Ramsden

Keyword(s):

Longitudinal Study ◽

Language Impairment ◽

Specific Language Impairment ◽

Specific Language ◽

Social Difficulties ◽

History Of

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Nonadjacent Dependency Learning in Cantonese-Speaking Children With and Without a History of Specific Language Impairment

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2016_jslhr-l-15-0232 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 60 (3) ◽

pp. 694-700 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Lai-Sang Iao ◽

Lai Yan Ng ◽

Anita Mei Yin Wong ◽

Oi Ting Lee

Keyword(s):

Language Development ◽

Language Impairment ◽

Specific Language Impairment ◽

Learning Task ◽

Linguistic Context ◽

Specific Language ◽

Language And Culture ◽

History Of ◽

Nonadjacent Dependencies ◽

English Speaking

Purpose This study investigated nonadjacent dependency learning in Cantonese-speaking children with and without a history of specific language impairment (SLI) in an artificial linguistic context. Method Sixteen Cantonese-speaking children with a history of SLI and 16 Cantonese-speaking children with typical language development (TLD) were tested with a nonadjacent dependency learning task using artificial languages that mimic Cantonese. Results Children with TLD performed above chance and were able to discriminate between trained and untrained nonadjacent dependencies. However, children with a history of SLI performed at chance and were not able to differentiate trained versus untrained nonadjacent dependencies. Conclusions These findings, together with previous findings from English-speaking adults and adolescents with language impairments, suggest that individuals with atypical language development, regardless of age, diagnostic status, language, and culture, show difficulties in learning nonadjacent dependencies. This study provides evidence for early impairments to statistical learning in individuals with atypical language development.

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