A SYSTEM FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT IN KINDERGARTEN-CHILDREN

A valid and reliable diagnostic standard for language impairment is re quired for the conduct of epidemiologic research on specific language disorder. A rationale is provided for such a diagnostic system labeled the EpiSLI system. This system employed live composite scores represe nting norm-referenced performance in three domains of language (vocabu lary, grammar, and narration) and two modalities (comprehension and pr oduction). Children who have two Or more composite scores below -1.25 standard deviations were considered as children with language disorder . The performance of the EpiSLI diagnostic system was examined on a sa mple of 1,502 kindergarten children and it was shown that this diagnos tic system yielded results that were consistent with clinician rating and previous research results.