title: The clinical spectrum of developmental language impairment in school-aged children: language, cognitive, and motor findings.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Our goal was to evaluate detailed school-age language, nonverbal cognitive, and motor development in children with developmental language impairment compared with age-matched controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  Children with developmental language impairment or normal language development (controls) aged 7 to 13 years were recruited. Children underwent language assessment (Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-4, Peabody Picture Vocabulary-3, Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation-2), nonverbal cognitive assessment (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV), and motor assessment (Movement Assessment Battery for Children). Exclusion criteria were nonverbal IQ below the 5th percentile or an acquired language, hearing, autistic spectrum, or neurologic disorder.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eleven children with developmental language impairment (7:4 boys/girls; mean age: 10.1 +/- 0.8 years) and 12 controls (5:7 boys/girls; mean age: 9.5 +/- 1.8 years) were recruited. Children with developmental language impairment showed lower mean scores on language (Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-4--developmental language impairment: 79.7 +/- 16.5; controls: 109.2 +/- 9.6; Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation-2--developmental language impairment: 94.1 +/- 10.6; controls: 104.0 +/- 2.8; Peabody Picture Vocabulary-3--developmental language impairment: 90.5 +/- 13.8; controls: 100.1 +/- 11.6), cognitive (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV--developmental language impairment: 99.5 +/- 15.5; controls: 113.5 +/- 11.9), and motor measures (Movement Assessment Battery for Children percentile--developmental language impairment: 12.7 +/- 16.7; controls: 66.1 +/- 30.6) and greater discrepancies between cognitive and language scores (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV/Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-4--developmental language impairment: 17.8 +/- 17.8; controls: 1.2 +/- 12.7). Motor impairment was more common in children with developmental language impairment (70%) than controls (8%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Developmental language impairment is characterized by a broad spectrum of developmental impairments. Children identified on the basis of language impairment show significant motor comorbidity. Motor assessment should form part of the evaluation and follow-up of children with developmental language impairment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology/Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Richard I
authors.initials: RI
authors.lastname: Webster
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Erdos
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: Annette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Majnemer
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kehayia
authors.forename: Elin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Thordardottir
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: Michael I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Shevell
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D011581:Psychological Tests