ABSTRACT
The existence of a language specific impairment has long been debated; today it still remains an issue in the field of communication disorders. This chapter outlines the roots of this debate then considers areas where there is consensus and areas where there is disagreement. Drawing on evidence from our own data, we argue for the case that some aspects of grammar are domain specific, and therefore can be selectively impaired. Within the framework of computational grammatical complexity (CGC) there is evidence to suggest that children in the sub-group diagnosed with grammatical-specific language impairment (G-SLI) have a deficit within their hierarchical structural knowledge. Although domain specific approaches to language research are less common, so too is the incidence of children who display this type of disorder. The evidence we present here suggests that this area of research currently still requires greater study.
