ABSTRACT
Children with deficits in semantics have difficulty understanding and conveying the meanings of words, sentences, and extended discourse. Children with hearing impairment face some obvious challenges in learning language via audition. Semantic deficits are characteristic of a variety of developmental language disorders. Future work on semantic deficits associated with developmental language disorders will build on the current knowledge base. One of the first and most persistent signs of specific language impairment is a vocabulary marked by limited breadth and depth. Despite commonalities across diagnostic groups, the nature and severity of semantic deficits will vary greatly from child to child. Degree of intellectual disability accounts for the deficit to some extent, but patterns of deficit vary with etiology and the aspect of semantic development under consideration. Assessment of semantics is trickier than it may first appear. Beyond the very earliest stages of semantic development, the vocabulary is too large to measure in its entirety.
