Children who read words accurately despite language impairment: who are they and how do they do it?

Abstract

Some children learn to read accurately despite language impairments (LI). Nine- to 10-year-olds were categorized as having LI only (n = 35), dyslexia (DX) only (n = 73), LI + DX (n = 54), or as typically developing (TD; n = 176). The LI-only group had mild to moderate deficits in reading comprehension. They were similar to the LI + DX group on most language measures, but rapid serial naming was superior to the LI + DX group and comparable to the TD. For a subset of children seen at 4 and 6 years, early phonological skills were equally poor in those later classified as LI or LI + DX. Poor language need not hinder acquisition of decoding, so long as rapid serial naming is intact; reading comprehension, however, is constrained by LI.

Figure 1

Flow chart showing selection of children for current study in relation to previous waves of data collection from Twins Early Development Study. Note. The current sample was selected to be overrepresentative of children with language or literacy problems. Numbers in shaded cells denote twin pairs; numbers in unshaded cells denote individual children.