Nature of phonological delay in children with specific language impairment

This study investigated the nature of phonological delay in a group of children with specific language impairment. It was asked whether phonological errors in this group of children were generated by a slow but normal language learning process or whether they reflected a selective impairment in some representations that enhance normal acquisition and use of a language phonology. A group of 10 children with SLI (mean age=5,1) was compared with three groups of normal children who were matched in age (age control group, mean age=5,1), in sentence comprehension and recalling (grammar control group, mean age= 3,7), or who exhibited a phonological performance lower than the age average (group with low phonological performance, mean age=4,4). The four groups of children were assessed in terms of: (1) responses to a mispronunciation detection task; and (2) error profiles with complex and simple syllabic structures. Performance on the mispronunciation detection task showed that the group with SLI could distinguish...