The nature of the cognitive deficit in specific language impairment

Abstract

Fifteen language-impaired children between 3 and 5 years and 15 non-impaired children matched on sex, age, and non-verbal IQ were compared on classification, symbolic play, spatial memory and verbal memory tasks. The two groups differed only on the verbal memory tasks, and it was particularly the verbal sequential memory task that predicted language production, both Reynell expressive scores and MLU from spontaneous speech samples. These findings suggest that sequential processing/memory of verbal items is a critical factor in language impairment, while classi fication, symbolic play and spatial memory are not problematic.