ABSTRACT
The importance of understanding a child's oral language skills is not debatable. A variety of practitioners depend on knowing whether oral language development is progressing according to normal expectations or whether there is evidence of a delay or disorder. Strong language skills are founda-tional to literacy acquisition, academic achievement, and social competence. Unfortunately, the paucity of information regarding the language development of African American children has been a major barrier to improving our understanding of their academic successes and failures.
