Interactions between working memory and language in young children with specific language impairment (SLI)

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Linguistics

Background:

• Working memory (WM) is crucial for cognitive functions, including language acquisition.
• Specific Language Impairment (SLI) is a developmental disorder affecting language skills.
• Understanding the interplay between WM and language in SLI is vital for effective intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the structural components of WM in young children with and without SLI.
• To analyze the relationship between WM components and language abilities in children with SLI.

Main Methods:

• Administered the Automated Working Memory Assessment and linguistic tasks to 58 children with SLI and 58 controls (aged 4-5 years).
• Utilized a four-component model of WM: verbal storage, visuospatial storage, verbal central executive (CE), and visuospatial CE.

Main Results:

• A four-component model best represented WM structure, with no significant group differences in component associations.
• The verbal CE component showed moderate to strong associations with all assessed language abilities (receptive/expressive vocabulary, verbal comprehension, syntax) in children with SLI.
• Individual WM components exhibited varied associations with language skills in the SLI group.

Conclusions:

• The verbal CE component of WM plays a significant role in various linguistic skills for children with SLI.
• Impaired ability to simultaneously store and process verbal information in WM may hinder language acquisition in SLI.
• Interventions for SLI should consider and address underlying WM impairments, particularly in the verbal CE.