In the context of SLI, what is commonly observed despite normal hearing and nonverbal IQ?

In the context of SLI, what is commonly observed despite normal hearing and nonverbal IQ?

• A. Persistent morphosyntactic deficits.
• B. Hearing deficits.
• C. Excellent pragmatic skills.
• D. Advanced vocabulary.

Answer: (B)

In Specific Language Impairment, the defining pattern is persistent morphosyntactic deficits even when hearing and nonverbal intelligence are normal. Children often struggle with grammar features like tense marking, third-person singular, auxiliary verbs, and forming complex sentences. They may omit function words or produce incorrect verb forms, even though their vocabulary and overall comprehension can be relatively stronger. Because hearing is normal, actual hearing loss isn’t part of the picture, which helps distinguish SLI from language difficulties caused by auditory problems. Pragmatic skills and vocabulary can vary, but the hallmark difficulty that tends to stand out is the grammar–sentence construction weakness.

In Specific Language Impairment, the defining pattern is persistent morphosyntactic deficits even when hearing and nonverbal intelligence are normal. Children often struggle with grammar features like tense marking, third-person singular, auxiliary verbs, and forming complex sentences. They may omit function words or produce incorrect verb forms, even though their vocabulary and overall comprehension can be relatively stronger. Because hearing is normal, actual hearing loss isn’t part of the picture, which helps distinguish SLI from language difficulties caused by auditory problems. Pragmatic skills and vocabulary can vary, but the hallmark difficulty that tends to stand out is the grammar–sentence construction weakness.