Present and future possibilities for defining a phenotype for specific language impairment.

This brief report summarizes a workshop that was held at the National Institutes of Health in April 1998. The goal of the workshop was to further the development of a definition for the phenotype of specific language impairment (SLI). The report includes a discussion of research recommendations that will refine our current views of the definition of the SLI phenotype and sets out priority areas that are in need of further study to help advance understanding of this complex language-based disorder.