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The word length effect in children with language impairment.

Catherine H Balthazar¹

¹Program in Communication Disorders, College of Health Professions, Governors State University, 1 University Parkway, University Park, IL 60466-0975, USA. c-balthazar@govst.edu

Journal of Communication Disorders

|September 12, 2003

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Children with language impairment show reduced verbal processing capacity. This study highlights the importance of considering developmental factors in memory assessments for these children.

Area of Science:

Developmental Psychology
Linguistics
Cognitive Neuroscience

Background:

Children with language impairment often exhibit difficulties in verbal processing and short-term memory.
Understanding the underlying mechanisms of these deficits is crucial for effective intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate working memory capacity in children with language impairment using serial word recall tasks.
To examine the influence of subvocal rehearsal strategies on memory performance.

Main Methods:

Serial word recall tasks (full verbal recall and probed recall) were administered to children with and without language impairment.
The word length effect was used to assess subvocal rehearsal strategies.
Participants were matched for productive language or chronological age.

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Main Results:

The word length effect was significant in full recall across all groups, indicating reliance on subvocal rehearsal.
This effect was not significant in probed recall for children with language impairment.
This suggests a limited capacity for verbal output processing in this group.

Conclusions:

Children with language impairment demonstrate a reduced capacity for verbal output processing, particularly in tasks requiring active rehearsal.
Developmental factors, such as the use of subvocal rehearsal, must be considered when assessing short-term memory in children with language disorders.