The Impact of Specific LanguageImpairmenton Adolescents'WrittenText

This study examined the writing performance of 58 students with a history of specific language impairment, assessing them at ages 8, 11, 12, 14, and 16 to evaluate longitudinal tra - jectories of writing performance and relationships with oral language, reading, and handwriting fluency. At age 16, participants continued to experience problems with oral language and literacy: Their writing evidenced short texts, poor sentence structure, and difficulties with ideas and organi - zation. Concurrent measures of vocabulary and spelling were significant factors in explaining writ - ing performance. Handwriting fluency remained a particular difficulty for the current cohort and directly affected writing performance. Path analysis indicated that previous levels of literacy medi - ated the impact of oral language skills. Exceptional Children