Language Difficulties Associated with Specific Language Impairment
In addition to students with specific speech disorders, you will also find students who have language disorders but no other disabilities. These students may be classified as having a Specific Language Impairment (SLI). The table below lists some key facts about language difficulties associated with Specific Language Impairment at different ages.
| Age | Language Difficulties |
| Infancy and toddlerhood | Late appearance of first word (average age of 23 months); delayed use of present progressive (-ing), plural (s), and possessive ('s); late use of two-word combinations (average age of 37 months); less frequent use of verbs and less variety in verbs; slow development of pronouns; longer reliance on gestures for getting needs meet; difficulty initiating with peers; difficulty sustaining turns in conversation |
| Preschool | Use of grammar that resembles that of younger children (e.g., pronoun errors, as in me want dolly); late use of verb markers (e.g., third person singular is as an auxiliary); frequent errors of omission (e.g., leaving out key elements of syntax); shorter sentence length; problems forming questions with inverted auxiliaries; difficulty with accurate use of be as an auxiliary or copular verb form; slow development of pronouns; requests similar to those of younger children; difficulty with group conversations (i.e., conversing with more than one child); difficulty with verbal resolution of conflict |
| Early and later elementary | Word-finding problems accompanied by circumlocutions and pauses; naming errors (e.g., shoes for pants); slower processing speed; use of earlier developing pronoun forms; low sensitivity to the speech of others (e.g., difficulty responding to indirect requests); difficulty maintaining topics; difficulty recognizing need for conversational repair |
| Adolescence | Difficulty expressing ideas about language; inappropriate responses to questions and comments; poor social language; insufficient information for listeners; redundancy; inadequate sense of limits or boundaries; difficulty expressing needs and ideas; difficulty initiating conversations with peers; immature conversational participation |
Source: From L. Justice, Communication Sciences and Disorders (2006), p. 224, published by Merrill/Prentice Hall. Copyright © by Pearson Education. Reprinted with permission.
Excerpt from Special Education for Today's Teachers: An Introduction , by M.S. Rosenberg & D.L. Westling & J. McLeskey, 2008 edition, p. 306.
© 2008, Merrill, an imprint of Pearson Education Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Take Action
- this article with friends and family.
- Have a question about Speech and Language Issues? Ask it here.
- Publish your work on education.com.
