Excerpts from a recent article by Conti-Ramsden & Durkin (Feb 2008):
“The present study examined independent functioning in domains relevant to everyday living. These included self-care activities, traveling and meeting people, and managing finances, among others. Autonomy in these kinds of tasks is foremost in young people’s subjective sense of reaching adulthood…”
“…By the end of compulsory schooling (i.e., 16 years of age) most typically developing adolescents appeared competent in the areas of independence examined… In contrast, and as predicted, adolescents with specific language impairment fared significantly less well… This finding is consistent with the assumptions that language abilities are integral to a range of everyday personal competencies…”
“…the findings underscore the need for intensive intervention directed at improving oral language skills… The study also highlights the need to monitor and support not only the oral language skills of these children but their reading progress…”