Preschool language intervention--a follow-up of some within-group differences

A more detailed study was made of the children who had been followed-up by Urwin, Cook & Kelly (1988) 4-8 years after leaving a preschool language group. Children were independently allocated into groups according to their speech and language diagnosis prior to entry to the Unit. There were two major dimensions--receptive/expressive versus expressive only, and phonology versus non-phonology. Comparisons were made between the group as indicated by children's performance at follow-up for measures of ability, achievement, language and social functioning. Conclusions are drawn about the long-term effects of the early language difficulty and preschool intervention. Attention is also drawn to differences in perceiving the effects of language difficulty between the specialist professionals on the one hand and parents and teachers on the other.