ABSTRACT
The last decade has seen explosive growth in the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to explore human brain structure and function in healthy and clinical adult populations. MRI is also increasingly used to conduct research studies of typically and atypically developing children, from the fi rst days of infancy and into the school years. MRI holds considerable promise as a research tool in the fi eld of developmental speech and language disorders, and indeed in typical development as well. Already, studies of typically developing children have shown that the brain continues to
develop and change throughout childhood and into adolescence, and that structural and functional change is possible through experience and environmental input. MRI studies of children with developmental language disorders have the potential to inform us about the pace and course of neurodevelopmental change in this population and to show us how “specifi c” language impairment might differ from other developmental disorders.
