| The present investigation examined the relationships among speech-language and reading abilities in a sample of Standard American speaking, middle to upper middle class third grade children with histories of speech-language or reading deficits. Based on speech-language and reading history, fifty third grade children were assigned to one of the following five groups (10 subjects; 5 boys, 5 girls per group): (S) Speech disorder; (L) Language disorder; (SL) Speech and Language disorder; (R) Reading disorder; or (N) Normal speech-language and reading. The subjects were between 8.25 and 10.22 years of age (mean = 8.96; sd = 0.44).;Each subject demonstrated normal hearing sensitivity, normal neurological status, no evidence of craniofacial anomalies, absence of autism or emotional disturbance, and a nonverbal IQ within normal limits. The data collected in the present study included scores from several speech-language (including language, metalinguistics, narrative and phonological processing) and reading (including word decoding and reading comprehension) measures.;Results showed that L, SL and R groups performed more poorly than N and S groups on many speech-language and reading measures. The L and SL group tended to score more poorly than the R group on the experimental battery suggesting that the R group contained subjects with less severe language-learning disorders. Although the S group scored low on word/phrase repetition tasks, this group did not evidence other language or reading limitations.;Phonological processing abilities were found to explain the greatest amount of variance in word decoding skills, whereas language/metalinguistic skills explained the greatest amount of variance in reading comprehension skills. The relationship between word decoding and reading comprehension is discussed.;The group data and regression findings are significant in that they provide valuable information for identifying children at risk for language-learning difficulties. The findings also provide an information base for diagnosis and remediation. |
