title: Differences in the performance of children with specific language impairment and their typically developing peers on nonverbal cognitive tests: a meta-analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study used meta-analysis to investigate the difference in nonverbal cognitive test performance of children with specific language impairment (SLI) and their typically developing (TD) peers.
  
  
  METHODS
  The meta-analysis included studies (a) that were published between 1995 and 2012 of children with SLI who were age matched (and not nonverbal cognitive matched) to TD peers and given a norm-referenced nonverbal cognitive test and (b) that reported sufficient data for an effect size analysis. Multilevel modeling was used to examine the performance of children with SLI relative to their typically developing, age-matched peers on nonverbal IQ tests.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Across 138 samples from 131 studies, on average children with SLI scored 0.69 standard deviations below their TD peers on nonverbal cognitive tests after adjusting for the differences in the tests used, the low-boundary cutoff scores, the age of the participants, and whether studies matched the two groups on socioeconomic status.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The lower performance of children with SLI relative to TD children on nonverbal IQ tests has theoretical implications for the characterization of SLI and clinical and political implications regarding how nonverbal cognitive tests are used and interpreted for children with this disorder.
authors.forename: Erica
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gallinat
authors.forename: Tammie J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Spaulding
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D007804:Language Development; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D009633:Nonverbal Communication / Q000523:psychology*