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Thank you. Have a good day.

Elizabeth (Dr) 

At what age can a speech pathologist more accurately identify a child with SLI? How does the assessment for SLI in Singapore looks like?

Depending on the child's background (SES, underlying disability, readiness), I would imagine that there are children who speak later than 2YO, as late as 4-5YO, but they have no language impairment thereafter. 

Am I right to say that SLI isn't exactly a learning disability on its own but it predisposes a child to more hurdles in academic performance or social interaction? 

Thanks for helping me unpack my understanding on SLI. 

Cheers,
Geraldine

Answer: SLI can be assessed between the ages of 3 to 6 years and you are right that environment matters in the initial rate of development of the children. That is why assessment will usually include an interview with the child's caregiver, observation of the child in an unstructured setting, a hearing test, and standardised tests of language and nonverbal ability. 
Children with SLI may be intelligent and healthy in all regards except in the difficulty they have with language. They may in fact be extraordinarily bright and have high nonverbal IQs. Children with SLI usually learn to talk late. It is not unusual to first encounter a child with SLI at age 3 or 4 years, with limited vocabulary and short utterances. Later on they are likely to be the kinds of children who are told by well-meaning parents and teachers that they are smart but unmotivated and that they just need to try harder.

I do not have the statistics for SLI for Singapore but we do have research done overseas. One UK study showed that 70% of children tested at age 5 and diagnosed with SLI continued to have low language performance at age 18 to 20.  However, it must be noted that SLI is rarely found in isolation. Over 75% of affected individuals also meet criteria as reading-impaired and/or auditory-rate processing impaired. That is why academic learning would be affected. Please see if this article from DAS helps to share some light on what is done in Singapore. 

Also, in general, male students tend to draw more negative attention at school. For male students with ADHD, they tend to show more hyperactivity, impulsivity and physical aggression than female students with ADHD; as female students with ADHD may often have different symptoms, including anxiety, depression, daydreaming, and low self-esteem.Hyperactivity in females tends to show up as constant chattiness. All of these behaviours may be typical of females who don't have ADHD as well, so a teacher is less likely to flag a female student as having a special need. 

In other words, boys with ADHD are more noticeable than girls with ADHD. And that may explain why more than twice as many of them are identified with the disorder.

into a response. Thus it is important for us to 

• have enough variety in the lesson so that during instruction

each “brain” has sufficient opportunity to learn the material

being presented.

• allow for refreshments or physical movement

• learning is affected by emotions

As I have often said, "If our students do not learn the way we teach, we must teach the way they learn."  That is why SIOP and STP are good teaching approaches to start in our support for students with LD.