History Of Language Impairment Research Articles

Social Confidence in Early Adulthood Among Young People With and Without a History of Language Impairment.

PurposeThe purposes of this study were to test the predictions that lower self-esteem and higher shyness in individuals with a history of language impairment (LI) would continue from adolescence into early adulthood and that those with LI would have lower social self-efficacy in early adulthood.MethodParticipants were young people with a history of LI and a comparison group of age-matched peers. Both groups were tested at ages 17 and 24 years. Participants completed measures of language ability, nonverbal IQ, shyness, global self-esteem, and (at age 24 years only) social self-efficacy.ResultsYoung adults with LI scored lower than age-matched peers on self-esteem, higher on shyness, and lower on social self-efficacy (medium to large effect sizes). In line with expectations, in the group with LI, language ability in adolescence predicted shyness in young adulthood, which, in turn, was negatively associated with self-esteem. There was also a direct association between language ability in adolescence and self-esteem in young adulthood.ConclusionsYoung people with a history of LI are likely to be entering adulthood less socially confident than their peers. Interventions may be desirable for young adults with LI, and the present findings indicate social self-efficacy as a key area of social confidence that calls for practitioners' attention.

Prosociality from early adolescence to young adulthood: A longitudinal study of individuals with a history of language impairment

BackgroundLongitudinal research into the development of prosociality contributes vitally to understanding of individual differences in psychosocial outcomes. Most of the research to date has been concerned with prosocial behaviour in typically developing young people; much less has been directed to the course of development in individuals with developmental disorders. AimsThis study reports a longitudinal investigation of prosocial behaviour in young people with language impairment (LI), and compares trajectories of development to typically developing age-matched peers (AMPs). Methods and proceduresParticipants were followed from age 11 years to young adulthood (age 24 years). Outcomes and resultsParticipants with LI perceived themselves as prosocial; their ratings – though lower than those for the AMPs – were well within the normal range and they remained consistently so from 11 to 24 years. Two different developmental trajectories were identified for the LI group, which were stable and differed only in level of prosociality. Approximately one third of participants with LI followed a moderate prosociality trajectory whilst the majority (71%) followed a prosocial trajectory. We found evidence of protective effects of prosociality for social outcomes in young adulthood. Conclusions and implicationsThe findings indicate that prosociality is an area of relative strength in LI. What this paper adds?To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine developmental changes in levels of prosociality from early adolescence to young adulthood in a cohort of young people with LI. Approximately one third of participants with LI followed a moderate prosociality trajectory whilst the majority (71%) followed a prosocial trajectory. We argue that prosociality is different to other areas of functioning in LI. Prosociality appears to be an area of relative strength and can act as a protective factor in social functioning. Prosociality was associated with better community integration in young adulthood and was significantly protective against friendship difficulties for individuals with LI. This paper also raises the thought-provoking issue of potential distal effects of early identification and intensive support for LI. It is important to note that all of the participants with LI in this study had been identified as having language difficulties in childhood and had received intensive intervention for their difficulties in language units attached to mainstream schools across England. The early identification of language difficulties and the context of early, intensive language support received in educational contexts such as language units may have nurtured socialisation processes and the development of emphatic concern, which in turn influence the development of prosociality later in young adulthood. More individual differences in prosociality have been reported for other samples drawn from a variety of schools with different educational provision and levels of language support and younger age groups, such as primary school-aged children with LI.

Depression and Anxiety Change from Adolescence to Adulthood in Individuals with and without Language Impairment.

This prospective longitudinal study aims to determine patterns and predictors of change in depression and anxiety from adolescence to adulthood in individuals with language impairment (LI). Individuals with LI originally recruited at age 7 years and a comparison group of age-matched peers (AMPs) were followed from adolescence (16 years) to adulthood (24 years). We determine patterns of change in depression and anxiety using the Child Manifest Anxiety Scale-Revised (CMAS-R) and Short Moods and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ). In addition to examining associations with gender, verbal and nonverbal skills, we use a time-varying variable to investigate relationships between depression and anxiety symptoms and transitions in educational/employment circumstances. The results show that anxiety was higher in participants with LI than age matched peers and remained so from adolescence to adulthood. Individuals with LI had higher levels of depression symptoms than did AMPs at 16 years. Levels in those with LI decreased post-compulsory schooling but rose again by 24 years of age. Those who left compulsory school provision (regardless of school type) for more choice-driven college but who were not in full-time employment or study by 24 years of age were more likely to show this depression pathway. Verbal and nonverbal skills were not predictive of this pattern of depression over time. The typical female vulnerability for depression and anxiety was observed for AMPs but not for individuals with LI. These findings have implications for service provision, career/employment advice and support for individuals with a history of LI during different transitions from adolescence to adulthood.

Emotional health, support, and self-efficacy in young adults with a history of language impairment.

Children and adolescents with language impairment (LI) are at risk of emotional health difficulties. However, less is known about whether these difficulties continue into adulthood for this group, or about the potential role of environmental resources (e.g., social support) or internal resources (e.g., self‐efficacy). This study investigates emotional health in 81 adults with a history of developmental LI (aged 24) compared with 87 age‐matched peers (AMPs) using Beck Inventories. Social support and self‐efficacy measures were examined as predictors. The results were fourfold: (1) adults with LI had higher levels of emotional health problems; (2) whilst the availability of social support was similar across groups, people with LI received more help from others compared to peers; (3) social support was not significantly related to emotional health in those with LI – in contrast, for AMPs, uptake of support indicated poorer emotional health; (4) self‐efficacy was the strongest predictor of emotional health in both groups and fully mediated the relationship between language and emotional health (no moderation by group). This cross‐sectional study has implications for concurrent factors that might affect emotional health outcomes for children and young people with and without LI.

Health, employment and relationships: Correlates of personal wellbeing in young adults with and without a history of childhood language impairment

ObjectiveWe examine the potential associations between self-rated health, employment situation, relationship status and personal wellbeing in young adults with and without a history of language impairment (LI). MethodsIn total, 172 24-year-olds from the UK participated, with approximately half (N = 84) having a history of LI. Personal wellbeing was measured using ratings from three questions from the Office for National Statistics regarding life satisfaction, happiness and life being worthwhile. ResultsThere were similarities between individuals with a history of LI and their age-matched peers in self-rated personal wellbeing. However, regression analyses revealed self-rated health was the most consistent predictor of personal wellbeing for individuals with a history of LI in relation to life satisfaction (21% of variance), happiness (11%) and perceptions that things one does in life are worthwhile (32%). None of the regression analyses were significant for their peers. ConclusionsSimilarities on ratings of wellbeing by young adults with and without a history of LI can mask heterogeneity and important differences. Young adults with a history of LI are more vulnerable to the effects of health, employment and relationship status on their wellbeing than their peers.

An exploratory study of clinician real-time morpho-syntactic judgements with pre-school children

The purpose of this study was to explore the feasibility of employing real-time morpho-syntactic judgements. A system of capturing real-time judgements of children's utterances was implemented using a modified talk-time sampling procedure with 13 monolingual, English-speaking US pre-school children who had standard scores above 85 on a norm-referenced measure of language ability, four of whom had histories of diagnosed language deficits and were receiving language therapy. The remaining participants (n = 9) were typically-developing. The primary research questions were whether the linguistic data from abbreviated talk-time samples were comparable to traditional 100 utterance samples, and whether utterance level judgements made in real-time were in concordance with the linguistic data available in talk-time samples. Results of this investigation revealed positive and significant correlations in linguistic data across both forms of language sampling, as well as statistically significant inverse correlation between real-time judgement of utterance errors and mean length of utterances in morphemes (MLU-m), indicating that clinician decisions about children's utterances were closely associated with morpho-syntactic accuracy. Further analyses revealed that the percentage of conversational utterances with errors was different for children with and without histories of language impairment. Implications for potential clinical application and directions for future research are discussed.

5-HT2Receptor Distribution Shown by [18F] Setoperone PET in High-Functioning Autistic Adults

The serotonergic system is implicated in disordered emotional behavior. Autism is characterized by impaired processing of emotional information. The serotonergic (5-HT) system is also critically involved in brain development, and abnormal brain synthesis of serotonin is observed in autism. Furthermore, whole blood and platelet serotonin have been reported to be elevated in autism. The authors examined the CNS serotonin system in autism in vivo. 5-HT2 receptors were visualized by PET imaging of [18F]setoperone-binding in this pilot study of 6 high-functioning autistic adults and 10 matched-control participants. Autism subjects had less thalamic [18F]setoperone binding than controls, when covaried for age, but no difference reached significance in other areas. A negative relationship between thalamic binding and history of language impairment was also observed. Further studies will be needed to gain a clearer picture of the role of the 5-HT system in autism.

Early Writing Deficits in Preschoolers With Oral Language Difficulties

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether preschool children with language impairments (LI), a group with documented reading difficulties, also experience writing difficulties. In addition, a purpose was to examine if the writing outcomes differed when children had concomitant cognitive deficits in addition to oral language problems. A group of 293 preschool children were administered an assessment battery that included measures to examine oral language, nonverbal cognition, emergent reading, and writing. Children were divided into four groups based on their language and cognitive performance. The findings from this study show that as early as preschool, children with weaker oral language skills lag behind their peers with stronger oral language skills in terms of their writing-related skills. Children with oral language and cognitive deficits performed more poorly than children whose deficits were confined to oral language. A child’s cognitive ability also has an impact on emergent writing skills, but it appears to be moderated by oral language skills. These results are consistent with research documenting links between preschool language and emergent reading in children with a history of LI.

Explaining the academic achievement at school leaving for pupils with a history of language impairment: Previous academic achievement and literacy skills

The relationships are explored between language and literacy and academic success at 16 years in an English sample of 62 young people with a history of specific language impairment identified at 8 years. Data were available from national assessments at 16 and 14; in addition the pupils had completed a range of standardized tests to examine language, literacy and non-verbal ability at 10 years and 8 months and at 16 years. Concurrent measures of literacy had the highest correlations with academic performance. However, analysis revealed a complex model identifying relationships between academic performance at 16 and previous academic attainments in secondary school (national assessments at 14) and a measure of language (listening to paragraphs, Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals 3 or CELF-RUK; Peers et al., 1999). Standardized measures of literacy, non-verbal ability and listening to paragraphs (CELF-RUK) taken at age 11 accounted for over 50% of the variance in performance on Key Stage 3 (KS3) assessments at 14 in English, maths and science. Current gaps in our understanding of the factors that support successful school performance are discussed.

Commentary: Complementary approaches to the developmental cognitive neuroscience of autism - reflections on Pelphrey et al. (2011)

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are currently defined on the basis of observable behavior, with diagnostic criteria allow for enormous heterogeneity. In principle, two hypothetical individuals can receive a diagnosis of ‘‘autistic disorder’’ despite evidencing entirely non-overlapping symptoms. There is a growing sense that this heterogeneity stands as a major obstacle to further progress in understanding the causes of ASDs. In the current issue, however, Pelphrey, Hudac, Schulz & Vander Wyk (2011) argue that researchers have ‘‘over-emphasised the heterogeneity in ASD’’ by failing to recognize ‘‘the homogeneity of core disruptions in social information processing’’. Focusing on brain regions implicated in social cognition, they suggest, will ‘‘constrain’’ the heterogeneity problem. In what follows, I outline some of the challenges for this approach to autism and advocate a complementary research strategy that seeks instead to capitalize on autistic heterogeneity. Autism is classified as a pervasive developmental disorder, affecting multiple aspects of cognition and behaviour. While it makes sense to constrain the research question by seeking a good explanation of a specific aspect of the disorder, this is not the same as constraining autism itself. Some form of social impairment is required for an autism diagnosis, entailing that social dysfunction is a universal amongst diagnosed individuals. Although Pelphrey et al. (2011) acknowledge that the nature of this social impairment can vary considerably, they suggest that the underlying neurobiological mechanisms may be common to all or most individuals on the autism spectrum. Given the complexity of our social cognitive apparatus and the many potential ways in which its development could go awry, strong evidence is required before such an assertion can be made.

Journal abstracts from current research in the field of child and adolescent mental health

Debate RD, Kelley PG, Zwald M, Huberty J & Zhang Y (2009) Changes in psychosocial factors and physical activity frequency among third- to eighth-grade girls who participated in a developmentally focused youth sport program: A preliminary study. Journal of School Health 79(10): 474–484 Boyce JC, Mueller NB, Hogan-Watts M & Luke Douglas A (2009) Evaluating the strength of school tobacco policies: The development of a practical rating system. Journal of School Health 79(10): 495–504 Craine JL, Tanaka Teri A, Nishina A & Conger KJ (2009) Understanding adolescent delinquency: The role of older siblings' delinquency and popularity with peers. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 55(4): 436–453 Rosales FJ, Reznick JS & Zeisel SH (2009) Understanding the role of nutrition in the rain and behavioural development of toddlers and pre-school children: Identifying methodological barriers. Nutritional Neuroscience 12(5): 190–202 Clemmens DA (2009) The Significance of motherhood for adolescents whose mothers have breast cancer. Oncology Nursing Forum 36(5): 571–577 Archambault I, Janosz M, Morizot J & Pagani L (2009) Adolescent behavioural, affective, and cognitive engagement in school: Relationship to dropout. Journal of School Health 79(9): 408–415 Denison JA, McCauley AP, Dunnett-Dagg WA, Lungu N & Sweat MD (2009) HIV testing among adolescents in Ndola, Zambia: How individual, relational, and environmental factors relate to demand. AIDS Education & Prevention 21(4): 314–324 Pollock JA & Halkitis PN (2009) Environmental factors in relation to unprotected sexual behaviour among gay, bisexual and other MSM. AIDS Education & Prevention 21(4): 340–355 Nippold MA, Mansfield TC, Billow JL & Tomblin JB (2009) Syntactic development in adolescents with a history of language impairments: A follow-up investigation. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 18(3): 241–251 Sharaf AY, Thompson EA & Walsh E (2009) Protective effects of self-esteem and family support on suicide risk behaviours among at-risk adolescents. Journal of Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing 22(3): 160–168 Page RM & Hall CP (2009) Psychosocial distress and alcohol use as factors in adolescent sexual behaviour among sub-Saharan African adolescents. Journal of School Health 79(8): 369–379 Taliaferro LA, Rienzo BA, Pigg RM, Miller MD & Dodd VJ (2009) Spiritual well-being and suicidal ideation among college students. Journal of American College Health 58(1): 83–90 Jarrett T, Horn K & Zhang J (2009) Teen perceptions of facilitator characteristics in a school-based smoking cessation program. Journal of School Health 79(7): 297–303 Parker JS & Morton TL (2009) Distinguishing between early and late onset delinquents: Race, income, verbal intelligence and impulsivity. North American Journal of Psychology 11(2): 273–284 Burris JL, Smith GT & Carlson CR (2009) Relations among religiousness, spirituality and sexual practices. Journal of Sex Research 46(4): 282–289 Brown DW, Riley L, Butchart A, Meddings DR, Kann L & Harvey AP (2009) Exposure to physical and sexual violence and adverse health behaviours in African children: Results from the Global School-based Student Health Survey. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 87(6): 447-B

Introduction to the special issue of reading and writing: “Lexical representations in reading and writing”

Human beings were not born to read or write and, for many, the process of acquiring the skills associated with this cultural invention is arduous. Our species took 2,000 years to arrive at the alphabet but individuals born into the modern world are expected to master this complex code in around 2,000 days (Wolf, 2008). Despite the difficulties associated with learning to read and write, these processes provide the foundation for higher-level cognitive skills and have allowed the species to prosper. Throughout history, interest in reading and writing has been universal and has led to many great debates, which will be familiar to this journal’s readership. For example, philosophers in ancient Greece speculated about the consequences of a transition from oral to written culture, many have argued about the interpretation of religious texts, the best way to teach literacy in schools has become a pressing concern for governments and parents, discussion of the underpinnings of dyslexia have evolved from psychoanalysis to neuroscience and we now wonder about the nature and impact of text messaging via mobile phones. While the science of reading and writing is, today, a mature area of inquiry there is continuing controversy regarding many topics. In particular, there remains a great many gaps in our understanding of lexical representations. It is valuable to reflect upon the populations being assessed, and the techniques being used, by researchers in disciplines such as Psychology, Linguistics and Speech Pathology in order to further our knowledge of lexical representations. The papers included in this special issue address questions such as: Which aspects of word learning are associated with risk of reading problems in young children? How do adult readers distinguish nouns from verbs? What are the mechanisms that allow so-called ‘lexical experts’ to excel at reading? What are the unique characteristics of story writing in adults with a history of language impairment?

Syntactic Development in Adolescents With a History of Language Impairments: A Follow-Up Investigation

Syntactic development in adolescents was examined using a spoken discourse task and standardized testing. The primary goal was to determine whether adolescents with a history of language impairments would differ from those with a history of typical language development (TLD). This is a companion study to one that examined these same adolescents 2 years earlier (M. A. Nippold, T. C. Mansfield, J. L. Billow, & J. B. Tomblin, 2008). The participants were 15-year-old adolescents with a history of specific language impairment (SLI; n = 102), nonspecific language impairment (NLI; n = 77), or TLD (n = 247). A sample of spoken discourse was elicited using a Peer Conflict Resolution (PCR) task and analyzed for mean length of T-unit, clausal density, and subordinate clause use. In addition, 2 subtests from the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, Third Edition (E. Semel, E. H. Wiig, & W. A. Secord, 1995), Concepts and Directions and Recalling Sentences, were administered. On the PCR task, the TLD group outperformed the SLI and NLI groups on mean length of T-unit, clausal density, and nominal clause use, and the TLD group outperformed the NLI group on relative clause use. On the standardized testing, the TLD group outperformed the SLI and NLI groups, and the SLI group outperformed the NLI group. Correlation coefficients calculated between the nonstandardized and standardized measures of syntax were statistically significant and positive. Speech-language pathologists may wish to employ the PCR task to examine syntactic development in adolescents as a supplement to standardized testing.

Text structure and patterns of cohesion in narrative texts written by adults with a history of language impairment

This paper examines text structure and patterns of cohesion in stories written by a group of adults with a history of childhood language impairment. The study aimed to extend our knowledge of writing difficulties in this group by building upon a study that examined clause level phenomena (Smith-Lock, Nickels, & Mortensen, this issue). Ten adults with a history of Language Impairment and 30 control participants were asked to write the story of Cinderella. Stories were analyzed for their generic structure and cohesion resources, both of which contribute to the organization and coherence of a text. Results revealed that patterns of text organization at the level of generic structure and measures of cohesion did not distinguish the performance of writers with a history of Language Impairment from the comparison group. A wide range of lexico-grammatical skills was evident within the Language Impaired group, with few individuals with Language Impairment falling outside the normal range of performance. It is suggested that generic structure and cohesion are a relative strength in the writing of adults with Language Impairment, within the constraints of their lexical and grammatical skills.

Story writing skills of adults with a history language-impairment

The purpose of this study was to investigate the story writing skills of adults with a history of oral language impairment. It was hypothesized that writing text would pose difficulty for adults with a history of language impairment (LI), and that this difficulty would manifest itself as reduced grammatical complexity and increased errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation. The story writing of 10 adults with a history of LI was compared to a group of 51 unimpaired individuals. Participants were asked to write the story of Cinderella. Stories were analysed for length, grammatical complexity and accuracy of grammar, punctuation and spelling. Data were analysed to determine group trends as well as individual profiles. As a group, the adults with LI showed no difference from the comparison group in the length of their stories as measured by total number of words. The LI group did, however, show reduced grammatical complexity in their writing, as measured by mean length of t-unit. The LI group made more errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation than the comparison group. Individual analyses indicated substantial variability within the LI group. It is concluded that LI in childhood is associated with writing difficulties in adulthood.

Linguistic Development in Stuttering Children

Normal fluency errors usually appear during language development, especially during the transition between the stages of one-word and simple phrases. In cases of stuttering the speaker produces several involuntary repetitions of phonemes, syllables, or words. The speaker can also show phoneme prolongation or a complete interruption of speech production. Other abnormal fluency failures in stuttering include tension pauses and fragmented words. An individual with stuttering can show associated related behaviors and movements, including tremor, eye blinks, and hand movements, among others. Aim: To study the relationship between language development and organization and the presence of stuttering in children. Materials and Methods: Twenty children with stuttering, age ranging from 4 to 7 years old were studied. A matched con- trol group of 20 children without stuttering and without a history of language impairment were also studied. For evaluat- ing language development, all patients were analyzed using the Situational- Discourse- Semantic (SDS) Model. This model is a valuable tool for conducting naturalistic observation and descriptive assessment of language development. The SDS Model provides a detailed description of 3 language contexts (situational, discourse and semantic) in 10 levels of cognitive and linguistic organization. Results: In all contexts considered by the model of cognitive and linguistic organization used for this study, i.e. situ- ational-discourse-semantic, a significantly higher frequency of language delay was demonstrated in stuttering patients, as compared with patients without stuttering. Furthermore, none of the patients present with stuttering showed an adequate level of language development. Conclusion: Children present with stuttering demonstrated a significantly higher frequency of delay in language develop- ment as compared with children without stuttering. From the results of this paper, it seems that a detailed evaluation of all aspects of cognitive and linguistic organization should be performed in children with stuttering. Moreover, it seems that speech intervention in stuttering children should address not only fluency, but also specific aspects of language develop- ment.

The relationship between reading skill and descriptive picture narratives in late-primary age children with a history of language impairment

Assessing the language skills of older children is an increasing concern for educational psychologists and speech and language therapists. It is now known that groups with language difficulties also often experience severe literacy difficulties but the relationship between oral language and literacy is not well understood in older children. In this study, the picture description narratives from 121 children with a history of SLI were analysed in relation to standardised language tests, reading accuracy and comprehension at 11 years of age. Four narrative subscales were examined: the use of complex syntax, the use of evaluative devices, morphological errors and semantic errors.In general narratives were short and limited in scope. Partial correlations with NVIQ controlled showed that both error scores were related to reading skill. Even in this clinical language sample a small group of ‘poor text comprehenders’ could be identified who showed normal reading accuracy but poor text comprehension (n = 11, 10 per cent) as well as a majority of generally poor readers (n = 79) who showed reading accuracy and comprehension scores outside the normal range, and a significant minority of normal readers with SLI (n = 21) with both reading scores within 1SDof the normative mean. There was no support for an increased proportion of children with a ‘dyslexic’ profile: that is poor decoding in the context of good text comprehension. A significant interaction of narrative profile was found across the reading groups (group x narrative subscale). These literacy and narrative profiles have implications for educational progress and the assessment of written and oral language in difficult-to-test populations.

Atypical behaviors in children with autism and children with a history of language impairment

The frequency, course, and inter-relationships of atypical eating, sleeping, self-injurious behavior, aggression and temper tantrums in children with autism and children with a history of language impairment (HLI), was investigated using a parent interview that was created to examine these problem behaviors. The relationships between these behaviors and language, IQ, severity of autistic symptoms and depression were also assessed. Atypical eating behavior, abnormal sleep patterns, temper tantrums, and self-injurious behavior were significantly more common in the children with autism than those with HLI. Within the autism group, children who exhibited more atypical behaviors tended to have a lower nonverbal IQ, lower levels of expressive language, more severe social deficits and more repetitive behaviors. No relationship between the number of atypical behaviors and measures of cognitive or language ability was noted in the HLI group. However, having more atypical behaviors was related to increased restricted, repetitive behaviors in children with HLI. The atypical behaviors could be divided into two groups: abnormal eating and sleeping, which were independent and tended to begin early in life; and self-injury, tantrums and aggression, which began later and were inter-related. Sleep abnormalities were more common in children (groups combined) diagnosed with major depression.

English Past Tense Use in Bilingual Children With Language Impairment

Grammatical measures that distinguish language differences from language disorders in bilingual children are scarce. This study examined English past tense morphology in sequential bilingual Spanish/English-speaking children, age 7;0-9;0 (years;months). Twelve bilingual children with language impairment (LI) or history of LI and 15 typically developing (TD) bilingual children participated. Thirty-six instances of the past tense including regular, irregular, and novel verbs were examined using an elicited production task. By examining English past tense morphology in sequential bilinguals, we uncovered similarities and differences in the error patterns of TD children and children with LI. The groups differed in the overall accuracy of past tense use according to verb type, as well as the characteristic error patterns. Children with LI performed lower than their TD peers on all verb categories, with an interaction between verb type and group. TD children were better at producing regular verbs and exhibited more productive errors (e.g., overregularization). Conversely, children with LI performed relatively better on irregular verbs and poorest on novel verbs, and they exhibited more nonproductive errors (e.g., bare stem verbs). The results have important clinical implications for the assessment of morphological productivity in Spanish-speaking children who are learning English sequentially.

Language problems in poor readers

In recent definitions of dyslexia there is agreement on the following: dyslexia is a language (-based) disorder restricted to difficulties in phonological processing abilities. This causes primary problems in word decoding and spelling, and, as a consequence, also in reading comprehension. This is in accordance with the widely accepted reading model, which regards decoding as a prerequisite for reading comprehension. In this paper, we will discuss the relevance of these definitions, and the reading model they are based on, using data from a longitudinal study of readers who were diagnosed as being language-impaired when they were pre-schoolers. This group will be compared with a control group having no history of language impairments and also with groups of adolescent and adult dyslexics.