Writing skills of adults with a history of specific language impairment

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether childhood SLI is associated with adult dyslexia. We examined the reading and writing of 8 adults (aged 18 to 44) with a history of SLI. Participants were tested on a variety of oral and written language tasks, including: single word reading, text comprehension, reading rate and story writing. Data were analysed in order to determine both group trends and individual profiles. At a group level, all participants demonstrated difficulty with reading and writing. At an individual level, profiles of strengths and weaknesses differed across individuals. It appears that childhood SLI does persist in the form of reading and writing impairment in adulthood, to varying degrees across individuals. These results indicate the importance of oral language skill in the development of literacy.