 we derived a subsample from each LEA (N = 59). We
excluded children with any additional complicating factors that might
preclude the diagnosis of SLI, and included children in two regional
special schools for children with SLI in the study (N = 10).
The resulting participants (N = 69, 17 girls and 52 boys) had been
identified as having SLI at a mean age of 8 years 3 months (SD = 4
months). All participants had English as their only language and were of
white English background. Eleven percent of the total sample was
eligible for free school meals, a measure of disadvantage in England
(Strand & Lindsay, in press), comparable to the national school
average of 14.3%. All participants required special education support to
access the curriculum, and 54% had a statement of special educational
needs (SEN) under the Education Act for England 1996. The SEN, similar
to an individualized education program in the United States, specifies
the provision that must by law be made to meet the child's unique
educational needs. This status is applied to about 3% of students in the
United Kingdom, over half of whom attend mainstream schools.
Participants were assessed an additional four times as part of a
wider longitudinal government-funded study charting the educational and
social needs of children with SLI (Dockrell, Lindsay, Palikara, et al.,
2007; see Table 1 for mean age at assessment and skills assessed). The
longitudinal study also examined the students' production of
written text at age 11 (Dockrell, Lindsay, Connelly, et al., 2007), 14,
and 16--data reported here.
As Table 2 shows, at the end of formal education the students
continued to experience difficulties with oral language and literacy.
The continued specificity of their difficulty is evident from the
statistically significant differences with nonverbal ability.
We attempted to contact all participants in their final year of
compulsory education (age 16). Sixty-two students out of the original 69
agreed to complete formal assessments; 58 agreed to complete the writing
task (15 girls and 43 boys). Of the students who refused to write, 3
completed reading and language measures. Refusers typically achieved
lower scores on language and literacy measures, but there were no
statistically significant differences between the two groups.
The children who completed writing assessments were being educated
in a variety of ways: 35 in mainstream classes, 8 in special units
within mainstream schools, and 15 in special schools including
residential schools for children with SLI. Over the previous 8 years, a
significant proportion of the participants had moved between different
types of provision. As was the case at previous points in the study
(Dockrell & Lindsay, 2008) there were few differences between
participants in different settings on the psychometric measures.
Students in specialist settings scored significantly lower on measures
of reading comprehension, F(1, 57) = 6.112, p = .02, [eta][p.sup.2] =
.10, formulated sentences, F(1, 57) = 4.498, p = .04, [eta][p.sup.2] =
.08, and nonverbal ability, F(1, 57) = 4.995, p = .03, [eta][p.sup.2] =
.08, but not on any other language (vocabulary, receptive grammar,
listening to paragraphs) or literacy (single word reading, fluency or
We identified measures to tap oral language skills, literacy,
nonverbal ability, and written language, and selected tests that were
age and culturally appropriate and standardized with measures of
reliability and validity. All measures are commonly used for the
identification and assessment of children with SLI in the United
Kingdom. Measures of reliability and validity are reported for each
scale on first mention, and unless otherwise stated information was
gained from technical manuals and refers to the overall reliability and
Nonverbal Ability. The British Ability Scales II (BAS II) Matrices
subtest (Elliott, Murray, & Pearson, 1997), presents children with a
set of patterns where one pattern is incomplete. There is a choice of
six responses and children are required to point to the missing piece:
reliabilit