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document
Literacy skills in primary school-aged children with pragmatic language impairment : a comparison with children with specific language impairment . BACKGROUND Children with pragmatic language impairment ( CwPLI ) are characterized by difficulties with the interpersonal use of language in social contexts and they possess a range of language difficulties that affect their educational attainment . Since literacy skills are central to this attainment , one way of identifying appropriate support needs for CwPLI would be to profile their reading and writing skills as a group . AIMS To investigate the word reading , non-word reading , reading comprehension , and written expression skills of CwPLI and a comparison group of children with specific language impairment ( CwSLI ) . CwSLI were recruited in order to examine any overlaps in literacy impairments for the two groups . METHODS & PROCEDURES Primary school-aged CwPLI ( n= 59 ) and CwSLI ( n= 12 ) were recruited from speech and language therapists . Children completed standardized assessments of literacy skills . The level of impairment for each component literacy skill was examined for CwPLI and CwSLI . OUTCOMES & RESULTS For the CwPLI , group mean scores on each of the literacy skills were at the lower end of the normal range compared with population norms . The range of individual scores was large , with some children scoring near floor level and others scoring up to 2 SDs ( standard deviations ) above the mean , illustrating the heterogeneity of literacy skills within the group . For the CwSLI , group mean scores on each of the literacy skills were between 1 SD and 2 SDs below the population mean . CwSLI were significantly more impaired on all of the literacy measures compared with CwPLI . This difference remained even when receptive language ability and non-verbal intelligence were controlled for . CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS The results demonstrate that there is a high level of literacy impairment within CwPLI and CwSLI , providing evidence that individualized literacy skill intervention is important for the long-term academic outcome of these children .
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Intervention_Educational
standardized assessments
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Outcome_Mental
word reading , non-word reading , reading comprehension , and written expression skills
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Outcome_Mental
literacy skills
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Outcome_Other
individual scores
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Outcome_Mental
mean scores on each of the literacy skills
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Outcome_Mental
literacy measures
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Outcome_Mental
language ability
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Outcome_Mental
non-verbal intelligence
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Outcome_Mental
level of literacy impairment
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Participant_Age
primary school-aged children
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Participant_Condition
with pragmatic language impairment
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Participant_Age
children
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Participant_Condition
with specific language impairment
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Participant_Age
Children
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Participant_Condition
pragmatic language impairment ( CwPLI )
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Participant_Condition
CwPLI
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Participant_Age
children
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Participant_Condition
specific language impairment ( CwSLI )
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Participant_Sample-size
( n= 59 )
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Participant_Sample-size
( n= 12 )