Specific Language Impairment: The Contribution of Scientific Literature to the Efficacy of Treatment

A systematic review of the most recently indexed literature was performed with the aim to detect scientific evidence for the efficacy of treatment in children with SLI and especially to identify modality and strategies of intervention that could be adapted to an Italian background. The databases PubMed, Cochrane Library, Psychlnfo and SpeechBITE were interrogated. Ten studies published from 2009 to 2014 (not on Italian samples) met the established criteria. It emerges the possibility to apply to the Italian context the interventions that improve the non-verbal, phonological, lexical and syntactic abilities as well as strategies and activities it have been found to be effective for the morphological competences. The results provide useful suggestions for the treatment of Italian children with SLI; specific studies to test the efficacy of these treatments in the Italian context are needed, focused in particular on interventions for the narrative and receptive abilities.