Children diagnosed with specific language impairment typically show the greatest deficits in which area?

• A. Acquisition of word meanings
• B. Comprehension of short sentences
• C. Production of sentences with appropriate inflectional morphology and syntax
• D. Motoric aspects of written expression

Answer: (C)

The main challenge in this area is morphosyntax in production. Children with specific language impairment often have real difficulty producing sentences with the correct grammar—marking tense, agreement, and using function words properly—and they tend to rely on shorter, less complex sentence structures. This pattern—trouble with inflectional morphology and syntax in spoken output—stands out even when vocabulary knowledge is relatively intact or when understanding simple sentences is preserved.

So, the area where deficits are greatest is producing sentences with appropriate inflectional morphology and syntax. Semantics (word meanings) and comprehension of simple sentences can be comparatively less affected, and motor aspects of writing are not the defining issue in this profile.