ABSTRACT
Developmental language disorders include a wide range of deficits observed in children while they are in the process of acquiring language. Exclusionary conditions have been applied to identify subgroups of language-impaired children (Verhoeven & van Balkom, 2004). Specific language impairment (SLI), the most commonly identified subgroup, is defined as a delay in language acquisition that cannot be explained by sensory, motor, nonverbal cognitive, behavioral, or environmental factors (L.B.Leonard, 1998). Yet SLI is, at best, a heterogeneous classification that includes a range of language-deficient profiles (Botting & Conti-Ramsden, 2004). Although the initial manifestation of SLI is delay or deficits in the acquisition of spoken language during the preschool years, reading deficits are frequently exhibited during later schooling (Aram & Nation, 1980; Bishop & Adams, 1990). In a recent article on relationships between SLI and dyslexia, Bishop and Snowling (in press) reported several studies showing unequivocally that spoken language deficits place children at great risk for reading difficulties.
