justice and her collaborators received the asha editor's award for their 2004 article "relations among maternal, child, and demographic factors and the persistence of preschool language impairment." this article used data from the national institute of child health and human development study of early child care to examine language outcomes of children, who at the age of 3 appeared to exhibit specific language impairment. at age 4.5, over half of the children show a persistent language impairment, with maternal depression identified as a risk factor in the children's prognosis.