Profiles of the relationship between phonology and language in late talkers

The focus of this article is on the relationship between phonological and language development in children who were identified as slow in expressive language development at 21 to 32 months of age. A detailed retrospective review of 12 children who were followed for six months to a year or longer is presented. Lexical, syntactic, and phonological information from clinical records was analysed to determine if language and phonological domains were developing commensurately. All sub jects displayed phonological and language behaviours that were com mensurate at their initial evaluation. At the one-year follow-up data point, 25% of the subjects no longer displayed an expressive language delay. The majority of subjects were still delayed in development and no longer displayed language and phonological skills that were commensu rate. For half of the subjects, phonological behaviours lagged behind developmental language level. Profiles regarding the time when phono logical and language domains separate are proposed, and variables related to outcomes, such as the focus of intervention, are discussed.