Abstract
PurposeSpecific language impairment (SLI; see also developmental language disorder) and dyslexia are separate, yet frequently co-occurring disorders that confer risks to reading comprehension and academic achievement. Until recently, most studies of one disorder had little consideration of the other, and each disorder was addressed by different practitioners. However, understanding how the two disorders relate to each other is important for advancing theories about each disorder and improving reading comprehension and academic achievement. The purpose of this clinical focus article is to integrate research on SLI and dyslexia as well as advocate for the consideration of comorbidities in future research and clinical practice.MethodThe first section reviews definitions as well as inclusionary and exclusionary criteria for SLI and dyslexia. The second section reviews research demonstrating that SLI and dyslexia are different disorders that often co-occur. Studies examining language, working memory, and academic achievement in children with separate versus co-occurring SLI and dyslexia are reviewed. The final section compares and contrasts school identification frameworks for children with SLI and dyslexia and considers the potential benefits of incorporating broad language skills into response to intervention (RTI) assessment frameworks.ConclusionsChildren with weak language skills are at a high risk of experiencing reading problems, but language difficulties are often hidden from view. Directly addressing language skills within school RTI frameworks can help improve the identification and treatment of children with SLI and dyslexia as well as support improved reading comprehension and academic achievement for all students.Presentation Video https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13063793
Highlights
These groups have examined phonological processing, with mixed findings overall
Group differences were nonsignificant, the SLI-only group scored higher than the dyslexia-only group, with moderate effect sizes on all tasks except the verbal semantic recall task. These results suggested that children with dyslexia showed broader and more severe word learning deficits than children with SLI-only
Duff et al (2020) examined progress on school-administered, omnibus measures of reading and math achievement from second through fourth grades in a large sample (N = 448) of children who could be classified as having SLI-only, dyslexia-only, SLI + dyslexia or TD based on researcheradministered, norm-referenced measures of word reading and oral language. ( Duff et al did not implement a nonverbal IQ cutoff as an inclusionary criterion, over 92% of the children with language impairment scored within normal limits on the measure of nonverbal intelligence, suggesting that this sample would be largely similar to samples in past studies of SLI.) Reading and math achievement was measured twice yearly from second through fourth grades with a computerized adaptive assessment administered by the schools
Summary
Disorders: What Can We Learn From Research on Specific Language Impairment and Dyslexia?. The majority of children with SLI struggle with reading comprehension at some point in development, but there is heterogeneity in the proximal causes of their reading comprehension difficulties (Catts et al, 2012; Kelso et al, 2007) This heterogeneity is predicted by the “simple view of reading” (Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Hoover & Gough, 1990), which states that reading comprehension is the product of two component skills, namely, “decoding” (the ability to translate strings of printed letters into pronounceable words) and “linguistic comprehension,” which is defined by Gough and Tunmer (1986) as “the process by which, given lexical (i.e., word) information, sentences and discourses are interpreted” Beginning around the second or third grade, as most children are able to read words accurately and fluently and as children are expected to “read to learn,” reading comprehension is primarily constrained by oral language skills Because they have a language disorder, most children with SLI are expected to struggle with listening comprehension. The final section considers how current school identification procedures differ for children with difficulties in oral language (e.g., SLI) versus word reading (e.g., dyslexia) and the implications of those procedures for theoretical and practical research
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