[Onset of language development in general developmental delay at age 5]

The course of development of a 5-year-old boy with a serious developmental retardation and massive behaviour problems who spoke only a few words is documented and described with psychometric tests and spontaneous language samples up to the age of 8-9. Inspite of this developmental retardation and poor care, the child reached until then an average to above-average intelligence in nonverbal functions. The symptoms were reduced only to a specific language impairment. At the age of 11, this disorder as well had practically disappeared. Such a course of development after the age of 5 is not common, whereas a specific language impairment normally remains a deficit. Possible causes for this favourable development are discussed.