Describes a condition of markedly delayed language development in the absence of any apparent handicapping conditions.

Many different terms have been used to describe the disorder of childhood characterized by markedly delayed language development in the absence of any apparent handicapping conditions such as deafness, autism, or mental retardation. It is sometimes called childhood dysphasia, or developmental language disorder. Much research since the 1960s has attempted to identify clinical subtypes of the disorder. These include verbal auditory agnosia and specific language impairment. Some children have a very precise difficulty in processing speech, called verbal auditory agnosia, that may be due to an underlying pathology in the temporal lobes of the brain. The most prevalent sub-type of childhood language disorder, phonosyntactic disorder, is now commonly termed specific language impairment or SLI. These children have a disorder specifically affecting inflectional morphology and syntax.

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