Shifting in School-Aged Children With Developmental Language Disorder

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Linguistics

Background:

• Executive functions, including shifting, are often impaired in children with developmental language disorder (DLD).
• Assessing shifting ability in DLD is challenging due to language demands in typical tasks.
• Event-related potentials (ERPs) combined with behavioral measures can help differentiate language and shifting effects.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate executive function shifting abilities in children with DLD compared to typically developing (TD) children.
• To utilize a cued set-shifting paradigm with behavioral and ERP measures to assess shifting.
• To explore differences in cue-P3 ERP component processing between DLD and TD groups.

Main Methods:

• A cued set-shifting paradigm was administered to 40 children (20 DLD, 20 TD), aged 8-12 years.
• Behavioral data (accuracy, reaction time) and ERPs (cue-P3 amplitude/latency) were collected during single-rule and mixed-rule blocks.
• Comparisons were made across groups and trial types (Switch, Stay, Single).

Main Results:

• Children with DLD exhibited longer reaction times but similar accuracy compared to TD children.
• Switching Cost was greater in the DLD group, indicating protracted processing.
• While ERPs showed differing patterns (reduced P3 amplitude for single cues, delayed processing for switch cues in DLD), statistical significance was not reached.

Conclusions:

• Children with DLD process cues and responses more slowly than TD peers, despite equivalent accuracy.
• Electrophysiological data suggest potential differences in cue processing in DLD, warranting further research.
• The study highlights the utility of combined behavioral and ERP measures for understanding executive function in DLD.