This study investigated the profile of language abilities in a sample of high‐achieving English speaking adults with developmental disorders. Ninety‐seven adult participants were recruited: 49 with a dyslexia diagnosis (dyslexic group), 16 with a diagnosis of a different developmental disorder including dyspraxia, autism and SpLD (non‐dyslexic developmental disorder group) and 32 with no diagnosis (non‐disordered group). Dyslexic and non‐dyslexic developmental disorder groups demonstrated similar impairments across measures of word reading, working memory, processing speed and oral language. Dyslexic participants showed the usual pattern of impaired phonological skills but spared non‐verbal intelligence and vocabulary. There were also some suggestions of impaired structural oral language skills in this group. A data‐driven clustering analysis found that diagnosis was not a reliable predictor of similarity between cases, with diagnostic categories split between data‐driven clusters. Overall, the findings indicate that high‐achieving adults with developmental disorders do demonstrate impairments that are likely to affect success in higher education, but that support needs should be assessed on a case‐by‐case basis, rather than according to diagnostic label.

中文翻译：

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成年人发育障碍样本中语言能力的概况

这项研究调查了在具有发育障碍的英语水平较高的成年人中样本中语言能力的状况。招募了97名成人参与者：49名患有阅读障碍诊断（阅读障碍组），16名诊断出包括发育障碍，自闭症和SpLD在内的其他发育障碍（非阅读障碍发育障碍组）和32例没有诊断（无障碍）团体）。诵读困难和非诵读困难的发育障碍组在单词阅读，工作记忆，处理速度和口头语言的测量指标上表现出相似的障碍。诵读困难的参与者表现出通常的语音技能受损模式，但保留了非语言智力和词汇量。也有人建议该组的口语结构能力受损。数据驱动的聚类分析发现，诊断不是病例之间相似性的可靠预测指标，诊断类别在数据驱动的聚类之间划分。总体而言，研究结果表明，表现良好的成年发育障碍成年人确实表现出可能影响高等教育成功的障碍，但应根据具体情况评估支持需求，而不是根据诊断标签进行评估。