Assessment of specific language impairment in Swedish

The results from pre-testings of 42 children selected for a cross-linguistic study are discussed to establish the usefulness of the assessment instruments used and whether the children selected are similar to children with specific language impairment (SLI) from other countries. The results from assessments of grammatical production, language comprehension and phonology clearly distinguished children with SLI from age-matched controls, while they differed from language matched controls only on phonological measures. As a group the children with SLI were about 2 years delayed on grammatical production measures and about 1 year on language comprehension. The assessment instruments used thus seem capable of distinguishing children with SLI. The Swedish children selected exhibit the same range of problems as children with SLI selected in other countries.