Language in autism and specific language impairment: Where are the links?

It has been suggested that language impairment in autism is behaviourally, neurobiologically, and etiologically related to specific language impairment (SLI). In this paper, we review evidence at each level and argue that the vast majority of data does not support the view that language impairment in autism can be explained in terms of co-morbid SLI. We make recommendations for how this debate might be resolved and we suggest a shift in research focus. We recommend that researchers concentrate on those aspects of language impairment that predominate in each disorder rather than on those comparatively small areas of potential overlap.