The current study is part of a larger study that focused on within-group classroom discourse patterns of children in special education classes for language impairment (LI). Eleven children with LI aged 7-9 were examined across 4 classroom contexts: dialogic journal-writing, group lesson, peer play and sharing time. Amount and complexity of language produced (mean length of turn, type token ratio), dysfluency (self-correction, self-repetition and speaker overlap) and communicative errors were plotted for visual analysis of profiles of performance. Results showed group differences in amount and complexity of language produced, dysfluency and errors. Profiles revealed individual variation in patterns of performance that tended to cluster into sub-group similarities in amount and complexity of talk, dysfluency and errors. Implications relate to the sub-classification of LI, as well as to assessment of and therapy for such subgroups. (Contains 5 tables and 11 figures.)