Semantic weaknesses in children with specific language impairment (SLI) may be explained by differences in disambiguation, the mapping of an unknown word to an unfamiliar object. Eight children with SLI (M age = 90 months) and eight typically developing peers (TD; M age = 90 months) participated in a disambiguation task manipulating words (phonologically distinct [PD] versus phonologically similar [PS]) and auditory stimuli timing (before or during visual stimuli presentation). Varied auditory stimuli timing did not yield significant differences. Both groups showed strong disambiguation for PD words. For PS words, children with SLI selected familiar objects while TD children showed varied response patterns, indicating that phonological similarity disrupts disambiguation. Differences for SLI children given PS suggest underlying disparities in processing of semantic and phonological information during disambiguation tasks regardless of auditory stimulus timing. Response times were not significantly different between groups but varied across word and auditory stimuli timing conditions.