Taalvaardigheidsonderzoek bij Taalgestoorde Leerlingen in het Voortgezet Onderwijs

Adolescent speakers of Dutch who have a language disorder cannot as yet be identified by generally acknowledged tests. However, in the future this will become necessary to apply for special education or financial support in the regular educational system. Based on a survey of the literature concerning normal and disordered language development in children up age 10, this article presents a pilot study in which the language skills of 10 specific language-impaired students are compared with those of 10 normally developing peers. Tasks are used both within academic and communicative contexts. Between the groups significant differences appear on two aspects only: the number of grammatical errors made while telling a story, and the length of the sentences used in writing a story. These two aspects therefore appear to be useful in the process of identifying language-disordered adolescents.