Delay or Deviance: Old Question – New Evidence from Bilingual Children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI)

For decades, researchers have attempted to determine whether language development of children with SLI is delayed or deviant (for an overview see Leonard, 2014). This question has been addressed by comparing children with SLI to younger language-matched children to determine similarities/ differences in their linguistic profile. The current study offers a novel approach, comparing bilingual children with SLI and unbalanced bilinguals with typical language development (TLD) of the same chronological age in their weaker language. The potential contribution of the present study is two-fold. First, it contributes to the continuing delay-versus-deviant debate by comparing linguistic profiles of bilingual children with SLI to those with TLD matched for language, age, and IQ. Second, it helps fill the gap created by “the weak interest in the weaker language” of bilinguals (Bernardini, 2016).