Do children recover from specific language impairment?

Natural recovery from stuttering is well documented for preschool-age children. If natural recovery from developmental language disorders is equally possible, speech-language pathologists could develop predictive measures for language disorders to save treatment time and money and alleviate parental concern. This article reviews the research literature on recovery from developmental language disorders with particular attention to specific language impairment (SLI). Additional attention is directed to the research describing late talkers and the probability of their recovery. Results of the literature review indicate that recovery is unlikely and that, even with treatment, preschool children with identified language disorders are likely to present with reading and writing disorders during the school-age and adolescent years.