A Comparison of Early Literacy Skills in Children With Specific Language Impairment and Their Typically Developing Peers

Although children with language impairments often experience difficulties learning to read and write, very little research has examined early developing skills in this population. In this project, preschool children with specific language impairment and peers matched for age, gender, and socioeconomic status were compared on measures of language, processing, and print-related skills. Results revealed that the children with language impairments performed more poorly than typical peers on tasks measuring knowledge of rhyme, letter names, and concepts related to print. Despite poorer performance of the group with SLI on narrative measures of linguistic structure, recall of information, and total events included, no significant differences were observed on inclusion of components identified as critical to overall plot line. Findings suggest that difficulties extend across early developing skills known to be important for both decoding and comprehension.

Key Words: language impairment, literacy, children, language, early literacy

Submitted on November 3, 1998
Accepted on April 9, 1999