Examining longitudinal changes in visuospatial working memory in adolescents with Developmental Language Disorder

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Linguistics

Background:

• Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) impacts language skills and is often linked to executive functioning (EF) deficits.
• Working Memory (WM) is a key component of EF crucial for cognitive tasks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate visuospatial working memory (WM) development in adolescents with DLD.
• To compare WM performance between adolescents with DLD and typically developing (TD) peers over time.

Main Methods:

• A longitudinal study tracked 38 adolescents (12 with DLD, 26 TD).
• Visuospatial WM was assessed using the Backward Corsi Task (BCT) at three time points.

Main Results:

• Adolescents with DLD consistently scored lower on the BCT than TD peers across all assessment waves.
• All participants showed performance improvements over time, but gains were significant only between Wave 1 and Wave 3.
• No significant interaction between group and time indicated similar developmental trends for both groups.

Conclusions:

• Visuospatial WM difficulties in adolescents with DLD appear to persist into adolescence, remaining below TD levels.
• Observed group differences may be attributed to the high executive demands of the BCT, particularly its central executive component.