ABSTRACT
A casual inspection of the recent literature on specific language impairment (SLI) in children suggests that these children’s core difficulties are exclusively in the area of grammatical morphology. This impression is misleading. Although no classification of SLI is universally accepted, the subgroup from which subjects in studies on SLI are most often recruited shows grammatical symptoms often accompanied by phonological symptoms-they belong to the so-called phonological-syntactic subtype. Although this subtype harbors the largest number of language-impaired children, it is not the only one-there are various subtypes of SLI, although some are more common than others (Conti-Ramsden et al., 1997; Haynes & Naidoo, 1991; Rapin & Allen, 1983).
