What is "specific language impairment"

alt. (context linguistics English) A disorder where a person's language skills are retarded or abnormally poor for unknown reasons. n. (context linguistics English) A disorder where a person's language skills are retarded or abnormally poor for unknown reasons.

Specific language impairment (SLI) is diagnosed when a child's language does not develop normally and the difficulties cannot be accounted for by generally slow development, physical abnormality of the speech apparatus, autism spectrum disorder, acquired brain damage or hearing loss. Twin studies have shown that it is strongly genetic.