LONG-TERM CONSISTENCY IN SPEECH LANGUAGE PROFILES .1. DEVELOPMENTAL AND ACADEMIC OUTCOMES/

Objective: This study examined the 7-year developmental and academic o utcome of speech/language-impaired and control children selected from a community sample. Method: Speech/language and psychiatric measures w ere administered to the children at ages 5 and 12.5 years. Using child ren's age 5 speech/language test results, a cluster analysis was perfo rmed to ascertain whether specific linguistic subgroups would emerge. The long-term consistency of these subgroups was explored. The associa tion between time 1 speech/language clusters and linguistic, cognitive , and academic measures at time 2 were examined, Results: four groups were identified in the cluster analysis: high overall, poor articulati on, poor comprehension, and low overall. Children with pervasive langu age problems continued to perform poorly on linguistic, cognitive, aci d academic measures, white those with comprehension problems fared sli ghtly better but still had more difficulties than those with normal la nguage. The poor articulation cluster had few articulation errors at f ollow-up. Conclusions: Empirically supported speech/language classific ations identified as early as age 5 continued to be relevant into late childhood. Pervasive speech/language impairment in early childhood wa s associated with increased risk of poor linguistic and academic outco me at follow-up, while isolated articulatory problems improved over ti me. These findings reveal the urgent need for early intervention among children with pervasive speech/language impairment.