This study evaluated (1) whether the metalinguistic difficulties of younger children with language impairments are similar to those of older children and (2) whether there are any age differences in the ability of children to use encoding and retrieval strategies provided them. Fifty-two younger children (ages 5.0 to 8.9 years) and 88 older children (ages 9.0 to 11.9 years), all with oral language or reading problems, comprised the study population. Subjects were given standard oral and reading tests, a non-verbal intelligence test, and a set of metalinguistic tasks. Subjects were given the metalinguistic tasks again 9 months later under varying conditions designed to help improve performance. The study found that initially there were significant differences between the groups on every measure of metalinguistic processing, all in favor of the older group. The later scores, however, indicated that the young children improved more than the older children in all aspects though degree of improvement was related to type of task and particular diagnostic group. Results suggest that intervention in the beginning school years can have a positive effect on metalinguistic abilities, especially in the area of semantics. (Contains nine tables/graphs.) (DB)