Number processing skill trajectories in children with specific language impairment

Area of Science:

• Developmental psychology
• Cognitive science
• Linguistics

Background:

• Children with specific language impairment (SLI) exhibit varied mathematical performance, with ongoing debate about the underlying causes.
• Hypotheses suggest deficits may stem from symbolic versus linguistic task demands or issues within the magnitude system.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether mathematical performance trajectories in children with SLI are linked to the demands of symbolic versus linguistic assessment tasks.
• To determine if a deficit in the magnitude system contributes to mathematical difficulties in children with SLI.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal monitoring of 20 children with SLI and 20 typically developing children from kindergarten to first grade.
• Development and application of four distinct tasks assessing varying language, symbolic, and domain-specific numerical skills.

Main Results:

• Significant differences in numerical task trajectories emerged between groups only when tasks had high language demands.
• No significant differences were observed in tasks with lower language demands, suggesting language is a key factor.

Conclusions:

• Children with SLI demonstrate an early deficit in numerical skills necessitating long-term memory retrieval and phonological articulation.
• Numerical skills with high language demands should be integrated into early detection and intervention strategies for SLI.