ABSTRACT
Children and young people with specifi c language impairment (SLI) represent a group of individuals who have defi cits in language ability while “everything else” appears to be normal. That “everything else” includes, by defi nition, adequate input from the senses (i.e., normal hearing and normal/corrected vision), an adequate biological basis to develop language (i.e., no obvious signs of brain damage), and an adequate basis for learning (i.e., nonverbal abilities similar to those of peers of the same age). A desire to engage socially is also important; children and young people with SLI seek to interact socially with adults and peers, and as such are not like children with autism, who are not as socially engaged. This commonly used defi nition of SLI has a number of key implications for our understanding of the impairment.
