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Declarative and procedural memory in Danish speaking children with specific language impairment
Jarrad A G Lum1, Dorthe Bleses
1School of Psychology, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. jarrad.lum@deakin.edu.au
Journal of Communication Disorders
|October 18, 2011
Summary
Children with specific language impairment (SLI) show greater difficulties with grammar than vocabulary. Their language problems are linked to verbal working memory deficits, not procedural memory impairments.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Specific language impairment (SLI) is often linked to memory system deficits.
- A proposed theory suggests basal ganglia abnormalities affect procedural and working memory, impacting grammar more than vocabulary in SLI.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between memory systems (declarative, procedural, verbal working memory) and language skills (grammar, vocabulary) in Danish children with SLI.
- To test the hypothesis that impaired procedural memory underlies grammatical deficits in SLI.
Main Methods:
- Compared 13 Danish-speaking children with SLI to 20 typically developing (TD) children.
- Administered tasks assessing declarative, procedural, and verbal working memory.
- Assessed knowledge of past tense (grammar) and vocabulary.
Main Results:
- The SLI group exhibited significantly poorer verbal working memory compared to the TD group.
- No significant differences in declarative memory were found after controlling for verbal working memory.
- Groups performed comparably on procedural memory tasks.
- The SLI group showed greater deficits in past tense (grammar) than vocabulary.
Conclusions:
- Grammatical knowledge is more affected than lexical knowledge in Danish children with SLI.
- The findings do not support a direct link between impaired grammar and procedural memory deficits in SLI.
- The role of other aspects of procedural learning and memory in SLI remains an open question.
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