Language and False Beliefs of School-Aged Children With Developmental Language Disorder

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Linguistics
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Neurotypical (NT) children's language abilities correlate with theory of mind (ToM) false belief (FB) skills.
• Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) exhibit language impairments, but their FB ToM skills present mixed findings.
• Understanding FB skills in DLD is crucial for communication and clinical intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether FB skills are affected in school-aged children with DLD.
• To examine the impact of task modality (verbal vs. nonverbal) on FB performance in children with DLD.
• To explore the relationship between specific language abilities and FB skills in children with DLD.

Main Methods:

• Fifty children aged 9-11 years (25 NT, 25 DLD) participated.
• Participants completed first- and second-order ToM tasks (true beliefs and FBs) in verbal and nonverbal modes.
• Language abilities (morphosyntax, vocabulary), working memory, and nonverbal IQ were assessed.

Main Results:

• Children with DLD scored significantly lower on FB tasks compared to NT children.
• FB performance was similar across verbal and nonverbal task modalities for children with DLD.
• Complement clause production was the sole significant predictor of FB skills in generalized linear mixed-model analyses.

Conclusions:

• School-aged children with DLD experience difficulties with FB skills, independent of task assessment modality.
• Complement clauses are strongly associated with FB skills, suggesting a critical linguistic component.
• FB skills should be carefully considered in clinical evaluations and interventions for language-impaired populations.