Exploring the boundaries of SLI: findings from morphosyntactic and story grammar analyses

Abstract

The nature of morphosyntactic and story‐grammar differences were examined between children with SLI and children with language impairments that fell outside the diagnostic category for SLI solely because of their low non‐verbal cognitive abilities (LNVA). Two oral narratives were elicited from 5‐year‐old children with language impairments and age‐matched children with normally developing language. Morphosyntactic difficulties were found to be similar for children with SLI and children with LNVA. The children with SLI produced more complex stories than the children with LNVA when a complex wordless picture book was used, but not for a single scene picture stimulus. These findings challenge notions about the unique nature of SLI and, understandings of differences and similarities with other language impairments.

• Language impairment
• oral narrative
• morphosyntax
• differential diagnosis