Executive Function Performance in Spanish-Speaking Children With Developmental Language Disorder: Uniformity and...

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Neurodevelopmental Disorders
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Developmental language disorder (DLD) is frequently linked to executive function (EF) impairments.
• The precise nature and pattern of these EF deficits in DLD remain incompletely understood.
• Understanding these deficits is crucial for targeted interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the specific executive function (EF) profiles in Spanish-speaking children with DLD.
• To compare EF performance between children with DLD and typically developing (TD) peers.
• To identify which EF components are most affected in DLD.

Main Methods:

• Assessed interference control, response inhibition, verbal and nonverbal working memory, and cognitive flexibility.
• Included 171 children aged 6-8 years (72 with DLD, 99 TD).
• Controlled for age and nonverbal reasoning in group comparisons.

Main Results:

• Children with DLD showed significantly lower performance in interference control, response inhibition, and verbal working memory compared to TD peers.
• Nonverbal working memory and cognitive flexibility did not significantly differ between groups.
• Interference control emerged as the most impacted EF, followed by verbal working memory and response inhibition.

Conclusions:

• Spanish-speaking children with DLD exhibit varied executive function (EF) difficulties.
• Significant individual differences in EF performance were observed within the DLD group.
• Interference control and verbal working memory deficits are key characteristics of EFs in DLD.