Specific Language Impairment

For decades, researchers have attempted to determine whether language development of children with SLI is delayed or deviant. Our study contributes to this debate by comparing the linguistic profiles of bilingual children with typical language development in their weaker language to those of bilingual children with SLI. Russian-Hebrew bilinguals with SLI (n=23), unbalanced bilinguals with Russian-dominant /Hebrew-weak (n=19) and Hebrew-dominant /Russian-weak (n=39) were compared on nonword repetition (NWR) and sentence repetition (SRep) tasks. The results indicated that despite the similarity in language proficiency scores, quantitative and qualitative differences emerged between the biSLI group and the unbalanced bilinguals in their weaker language. The performance of the unbalanced bilinguals can be attributed to the influence of the dominant language. By contrast, distinct error patterns, which cannot be attributed to L1-L2 influence, point at deviant language development in bilingual children with SLI.

The current study investigated performance on morpho-syntax in Russian–Hebrew sequential bilingual preschool children with and without specific language impairment (SLI) in both languages (L1 Russian and L2 Hebrew) using sentence repetition (SRep) tasks with a fundamental aim to disentangle the language abilities of bilingual children with typical language development (biTLD) from that of bilingual children with SLI (biSLI). Four groups of children participated (N=85) in the study: 45 L1 Russian–L2 Hebrew sequential bilinguals (30 biTLD and 15 biSLI), 20 monolingual Russian-speaking children and 20 monolingual Hebrew-speaking children. The SRep tasks in Russian and in Hebrew were based on LITMUS-SRep developed within COST Action IS0804 and contained 56 sentences of different length and complexity. The bilingual–monolingual comparisons yielded differences only in L1 Russian, where the monolingual Russian-speaking children outperformed bilingual children with typical language
development (TLD) in their first language. In L2 Hebrew, no significant differences emerged between monolingual speakers of Hebrew and bilinguals.
Comparisons of bilingual children with and without SLI showed that both the quantity and the quality of errors differentiate the two bilingual groups. In both languages (L1 and L2), bilingual children with TLD outperformed their peers with SLI. Bilingual children with SLI produced specific error patterns like those previously reported for monolingual children with SLI, i.e. omission of coordinators and subordinators, omission of prepositions, and simplification of wh-questions and relative clauses. These error patterns are unique to children with SLI and cannot be attributed to L1–L2 influence, while the errors of children in the biTLD group can be traced to cross-linguistic influence (mostly L2 influence on L1).

This study examined the writing performance of 58 students with a history of specific language impairment, assessing them at ages 8, 11, 12, 14, and 16 to evaluate longitudinal tra- jectories of writing performance and relationships with oral language, reading, and handwriting  fluency. At age 16, participants continued to experience problems with oral language and literacy:Their writing evidenced short texts, poor sentence structure, and difficulties with ideas and organi-zation. Concurrent measures of vocabulary and spelling were significant factors in explaining writ-ing performance. Handwriting fluency remained a particular difficulty for the current cohort and directly affected writing performance. Path analysis indicated that previous levels of literacy medi-ated the impact of oral language skills

Background. While oral language seems crucial to written language development there has been relatively little research on explicit links between the two.
Aims. This paper reviews and explores the links between oral language skills and the development of writing with particular reference to children with specific language impairment (SLI).
Arguments. Children with SLI are poor at writing and we review evidence from our own and others work showing how oral language and oral vocabulary skills, in particular, are closely associated with written language production in this population. We detail a set of longitudinal analyses showing close relationships between oral language, writing, and other literacy related skills.
Conclusions. We conclude that oral language skill does constrain the development of writing. Children with SLI are very poor at writing. Whether this is due to their general language level or a problem in a specific area such as vocabulary, grammar, or spelling remains to be seen.
We discuss the implications for educational provision of this set of research findings.

Children with specific language impairments (SLI) have difficulties in producing written text. It was hypothesised that the constraints on writing in children with SLI were similar to typically developing younger children with the same level of vocabulary knowledge. Twenty-three children with SLI (aged 10:5) were matched with 23 children for chronological age (CA) and 23 children for vocabulary levels (VC). Children with SLI performed significantly below their CA peers but not their VC peers on all aspects of writing including spelling. Regression analyses indicated that written text measures of spelling errors and oral language measures of vocabulary were significant predictors of writing products for both the children with SLI and their VC peers. This highlights the importance of oral and written language for the quality of children's written text and indicates that the writing of children with SLI was commensurate with their vocabulary and spelling levels. The results point to the role of both phonological and non-phonological processes in written text production in struggling writers.