Method: Normally hearing children who were clinically diagnosed with SLI (n = 22)
or APD (n = 19), and a quasirandom sample of mainstream school (MS) children
(n = 47) aged 6–13 years, underwent tests of verbal and nonverbal IQ, digit span,
nonsense word repetition, Spoonerisms, reading, grammar, and sentence and
VCV nonword intelligibility. Parents completed questionnaires on the children’s
communication, listening, and behavior.
Results: There was generally no difference between the performance of the children
with SLI and the children with APD on the questionnaire and test measures, and both
groups consistently and significantly underperformed compared with the children
in the MS group. Speech intelligibility in both noise and quiet was unimpaired in
the SLI and APD groups.
Conclusion: Despite clinical diagnoses of SLI or APD, the 2 groups of children had
very similar behavioral and parental report profiles, suggesting that the children were
differentially diagnosed based on their referral route rather than on actual differences.