The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between decoding and some language skills (vocabulary, phonological awareness and narrative discourse) with reading comprehension in students with specific language impairment (SLI). To do this, we worked with 104 first grade students with an average of 6 years 8 months, which were distributed into two groups: one was made up of 51 school children with SLI and the other consisted of 53 children with typical language development (TLD). The skills assessed were vocabulary, phonological awareness, narrative (comprehension and production), decoding and reading comprehension. The results showed that the reading comprehension of children with SLI was significantly correlated with vocabulary and decoding. In the group with TLD the same associations were noted, although a relationship between phonological awareness and reading comprehension was also observed. The results confirm that decoding is a core skill for reading comprehension. In addition, the vocabulary appears as the only linguistic skill associated with comprehensive reading in the initial reading learning of children with SLI.