Children with language impairment: prevalence, associated difficulties and ethnic disproportionality in an English population

Journal article

Language impairment (LI) is one of the most common types of special educational needs (SEN), not only as a child’s primary need but also as a secondary domain associated with other types of SEN. Language impairment is a risk factor for children’s later development, being associated with enhanced behavioural, emotional and social difficulties, in particular peer problems and emotional difficulties; literacy difficulties, including both reading and writing; and reduced levels of academic achievement. Risks arising from LI in early childhood may also have an impact through adolescence and into adult life. This study uses national data from the UK government’s annual census of all students aged 5-16 years attending state schools in England at four time periods between 2005-11, over 6 million students at each census. We analyse the data on students with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), the Department for Education’s category for students with LI, to examine overall prevalence of SLCN, and the variations in prevalence associated with child factors namely, age, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic disadvantage, and having English as an additional language, and with contextual factors, namely the school and local authority. We also examine disproportionality of identification of SLCN for different ethnic groups, compared with White British children. We discuss the implications of our findings with respect to the current debates regarding the varied terminology for LI, including SLCN, and of a needs compared with diagnosis based approach to assessing and making provision for children and young people with SEN.

Authors: Lindsay, G; Strand, S

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Frontiers Media
• Journal: Frontiers in Education
• Volume: 1
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 1-2
• Publication date: 2016-11-01
• Acceptance date: 2016-10-13
• DOI: 10.3389/feduc.2016.00002
• EISSN: 2504-284X
• Language: English
• Keywords: language impairment; diagnostic assessment; Article; ethnicity; needs-based assessment; speech language and communication needs; special educational needs; overrepresentation analysis; English as an additional language