SLI subgroups: interaction between discourse constraints and morphosyntactic deficits.

A performance-based model was employed to investigate the impact of discourse demands on the pattern of morphosyntactic deficits exhibited by children with Specific Language Impairments (SLI). The pattern of grammatical errors varied with respect to discourse demands for children with good receptive language abilities but remained stable and independent of changes in discourse demands for children with both expressive and receptive deficits. These findings suggest distinct deficit profiles for subgroups of children with SLI differing in receptive language abilities that are not evident when syntactic skills are investigated outside the context of ongoing spontaneous discourse.