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In:Specific Language Impairment: Current trends in research
Edited by Stavroula Stavrakaki
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 58] 2015
► pp. 57–88

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Is there an overlap between Specific Language Impairment and Developmental Dyslexia? New insights from French

 | Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
 | CNRS (Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive) & Aix-Marseille-University (AMU)
 | Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Published online: 11 August 2015
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.58.03tal
Reading skills (word reading and reading comprehension), phonological short-term memory (STM), listening comprehension and oral expression were examined in two clinical groups (one with Specific Language Impairment [SLI] and one with Developmental Dyslexia [DD]) in both a group study and a multiple-case study. In comparison to chronological age controls, significant and highly prevalent deficits were found in word reading and reading comprehension for children with DD. By contrast, deficits in listening comprehension, oral expression and phonological STM were found to be more significant and more prevalent in children with SLI. These results are in line with models that conceive SLI and DD as distinct developmental disorders rather than differing only in the degree of phonological impairment involved.
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