Non-specific nature of specific language impairment: a review of the literature with regard to concomitant motor impairments

In the light of emerging suggestions that language and motor deficits may c o-occur, the literature on specific language impairment (SLI) was reviewed to investigate the prevalence of co-morbidity between SLI and poor limb mot or skill in children diagnosed with language impairments, An extensive lite rature search was undertaken and the subsequent findings evaluated with par ticular reference to issues surrounding symptom co-occurrence, as well as t o theoretical and aetiological accounts of SLI. Clearly substantial co-morb idity exists between SLI and poor motor skill, suggesting that SLI is not a specific disorder of language, but rather that children with SLI experienc e a broader range of difficulties, of which motor incoordination is one. Cu rrent theoretical explanations of SLI do not account fully for such wide-ra nging difficulties and it may be useful in the future to focus on a more de tailed explanation in terms of shared cognitive processes or neuromaturatio nal delay to understand further the nature of the disorder, to explain it t heoretically and to deal with it practically.