AbstractThis paper reviews the findings of recent studies examining the motor abilities of children with specific lan-guage impairment (SLI). Standardized measures of motor ability confirm that children with SLI exhibit deficits in fine
and gross motor skill, both simple and complex. These diffi-culties also extend to speech-motor ability, particularly with the control of their articulatory movements. Communicative gesturing, on the other hand, does not appear to be significant-ly impacted in SLI. Some of the latest studies reviewed in this paper have examinedmotor processes supported by procedur-al memory, which is argued to be impaired in SLI. The results of these studies indicate that children with SLI have difficulty with motor sequence learning, but may show deficits in other procedural motor processes as well. Despite significant prog-ress with understanding the motor issues in SLI, future studies are needed to hone in on the nature of this impairment. KeywordsSpecific language impairment. Motor deficits. Fine and grossmotor ability.Speech-motor ability. Manual communicative gesture. Procedural deficit hypothesis