Purpose
To examine whether children with specific language impairment (SLI) differ from normally developing peers in motor skills, especially those related to timing.
Method
Standard measures of gross and fine motor development were obtained. Furthermore, finger and hand movements were recorded while children engaged in four different timing tasks, including tapping and drawing circles in time with a metronome or a visual target. Fourteen children with SLI (aged 6- to 8-years) and 14 age-matched peers who were typically developing participated.
Results
As expected, children with SLI showed poorer performance on a standardized test of gross and fine motor skill than their normally developing peers. However, timing skill in the manual domain was equivalent to typically developing children.
Conclusions
Consistent with earlier findings, relatively poor gross and fine motor performance is observed in children with SLI. Surprisingly, rhythmic timing is spared.