Follow-up of children with early expressive phonology disorders

Fifty-two children identified at age 4 to 6 years as demonstrating a modera te to severe expressive phonology disorder were followed to the third and f ourth grades. Children were classified into two groups based on the presenc e of an early phonology disorder in isolation (P) or the presence of a phon ology disorder with other language problems (PL). At follow-up, articulatio n measures failed to differentiate the groups; however, the PL group perfor med more poorly than the P group on measures of phoneme awareness, language , reading decoding, reading comprehension, and spelling. The P group demons trated poor spelling skills relative to their reading and language abilitie s, suggesting residual spelling weaknesses in these children. The PL group reported more nuclear family members with speech-language disorders and wit h reading disorders than the P group. Findings support previous research li nking early language disorders with later reading difficulties.