Final answer:
A child with a specific language impairment struggles with receptive and expressive language skills, demonstrated by challenges in understanding or producing language, which are common signs of conditions such as dyslexia.
Step-by-step explanation:
A child with a specific language impairment demonstrates difficulty primarily in receptive and expressive language skills. This may manifest in a variety of ways, including challenges with understanding spoken language, difficulty expressing thoughts verbally, struggling with reading and writing, and problems with sound-letter correspondence. Specifically, the case mentioned seems to reflect characteristics of dyslexia, where a child may experience letter reversals while reading or difficulty in spelling words correctly due to disordered processing of letters and sounds.
Additionally, children with other language deficits may be able to follow directions but unable to respond verbally, indicating issues with both the reception and production aspects of language.