THE EXTENT TO WHICH PSYCHOMETRIC TESTS DIFFERENTIATE SUBGROUPS OF CHILDREN WITH SLI

This paper reports on the results of a large project involving 7-year- old children attending language units in England. A group of 242 child ren with specific language impairment (SLI) were assessed on a battery of psychometric tests. In addition, teacher interviews were carried o ut to ascertain teachers' opinions of the children's difficulties. Clu ster analysis revealed six robust subgroups of children with language difficulties. The findings are discussed in the context of other appro aches to the classification of language impairment in children with sp ecial reference to the work of Rapin and Alien (1987).