[Language development disorders in preschool children: almost 4 years later].

Twenty-five children with specific language impairments (15 boys, 10 girls) who were assessed initially at a mean age of 4 years 11 months were followed up 3 to 4 years later and were tested with standardized instruments (Coloured Progressive Matrices, Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities [ITPA, German version], Heidelberger Sprachentwicklungstest [H-S-E-T]). A control group of normal children matched for age and gender was also assessed. Nonverbal intelligence in both samples was average (mean T-score: 54). At follow-up 52% of the children who had been identified as having specific language disorders had mild speech articulation problems. Forty-two percent continued to show evidence of language disorders. The main outcome findings were linguistic deficiencies in automatic and sequential processes of language usage (serial auditory memory, imitation of grammatical structures), in the processing of morphological structures (derivation of adjectives) and in syntactic production. There were significant differences between the groups in imitation of grammatical structures, syntactic production and correction of semantically inconsistent sentences (H-S-E-T subtests), and in the subtest "auditory association" of the ITPA.