Thirty 4- and 5-year-olds with specific language impairment (SLI) and 30 normally developing peers participated in a discrimination learning-shift paradigm. Both groups were equally successful in extracting regularities from recurring nonverbal stimuli and in making shifts. Findings failed to provide evidence that children with SLI are less able to extract nonverbal regularities or flexibly reconceptualize them, or that generalized "rule-induction" deficits underlie SLI. (Author/DB)