SLI SUBGROUPS - INTERACTION BETWEEN DISCOURSE CONSTRAINTS AND MORPHOSYNTACTIC DEFICITS

A performance-based model was employed to investigate the impact of di scourse demands on the pattern of morphosyntactic deficits exhibited b y children with Specific Language Impairments (SLI). The pattern of gr ammatical errors varied with respect to discourse demands for children with good receptive language abilities but remained stable and indepe ndent of changes in discourse demands for children with both expressiv e and receptive deficits. These findings suggest distinct deficit prof iles for subgroups of children with SLI differing in receptive languag e abilities that are not evident when syntactic skills are investigate d outside the context of ongoing spontaneous discourse.