The relation between early language delay and subsequent academic achievement was studied in 38 children using follow-up procedures. The study was designed to examine the relation of oral language deficits to reading, spelling and written language production. Criteria for subject selection included normal hearing; absence of mental retardation, psychiatric problems, or gross neuromuscular or seizure disorders; and a clinical diagnosis of delayed language before the age of 5 years. The subjects, 9 girls and 29 boys, ranging in age from 9 to 12 years, were administered the WISC-R, oral language measures, and academic tests.;Although predicted mean Verbal-less-than-Performance discrepancy for the WISC-R pertained, there was great variation in IQ distribution, particularly for those children with persistent mixed language disorders. Those subjects showing milder and more circumscribed language deficits exhibited significantly higher IQ's, both Performance and Verbal.;The subjects did show catch-up, in the sense that they could all communicate fairly effectively with intelligible speech. The majority, however, had persistent problems with linguistically complex tasks of verbal comprehension and, even more so, with expressive language production. Regardless of the presence of reading problems, the subjects' language performance could be classified according to the syndrome typology of Denckla (1977).;Mean age equivalents for the language based academic skills of reading, writing, and spelling did not surpass a calculated Mean Oral Language (MOLA) of 8-4 for all subjects. Strong correlations pertained across the various systems, which was manifested hierarchically, with oral language and reading at the apex and written language and spelling below.;On all measures, the mean performance levels of the older and the younger subjects did not differ significantly, suggesting a plateau effect between 8 and 9 years of age for the majority of subjects. On all test measures, the boys' language skills were quantitatively better than those of the girls, with a greater percentage of the girls than of the boys showing severe disorders.;Search for early predictors of language outcome was partially successful, with the initial PPVT showing significant correlations with a variety of outcome measures.
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