Specific language impairment - when only language becomes difficult

Abstract

Specific Language Impairment (SLI) is a language disorder that primarily affects oral language selectively. This impairment is not any sudden loss; rather some children are born with this disability. The impaired children exhibit this disorder by producing unusually faulty language, which the other children of their age have outgrown. Children with SLI are like the normally developing children in every other way except for some specific aspects of their L1. To identify this language difficulty, children have to be tested on their L1 through tests originally designed for their L1. Since this is a new phenomenon in a country like Bangladesh, we lack resources to identify and measure this. This paper is an attempt to present the case of SLI for a better understanding of the disorder. The paper illustrates the nature of the disorder and backs it up with the dominant theories that try to explain this. Also, considering the nature of difficulty and the exhibited problems, this paper suggests and explains some areas for testing in Bangla which may be able to identify the impaired children in our context.