The wider educational needs of children with specific speech and language
difficulties are of major concern to practitioners. Yet few studies have documented
the literacy skills of these children across a range of different types of
educational provision. The present study was designed to address this gap by
profiling the language and literacy skills of 59 year 3 children in two local
education authorities and 10 children attending specialist residential provision.
Children completed standardized measures of language, literacy, numeracy and
non-verbal ability. Children’s language and literacy scores were
significantly delayed, with an average delay of two years. The implications of these
difficulties for practice are discussed.
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