Lexical spelling in children and adolescents with specific language impairment: variations with the writing situation.

The goal of this study was to compare the lexical spelling performance of children and adolescents with specific language impairment (SLI) in two contrasting writing situations: a dictation of isolated words (a classic evaluative situation) and a narrative of a personal event (a communicative situation). Twenty-four children with SLI and 48 typically developing children participated in the study, split into two age groups: 7-11 and 12-18 years of age. Although participants with SLI made more spelling errors per word than typically developing participants of the same chronological age, there was a smaller difference between the two groups in the narratives than in the dictations.

[Genetics of specific language impairments].

Specific language impairment (SLI), involving environmental as well as genetic factors, is a complex disorder affecting 5-10% of preschool-age children. This review summarizes current data regarding the genetic factors involved in SLI. Genetic factors were first implicated in SLI on the basis of twin studies and reports of familial cases.