Complex sentence comprehension and working memory in children with specific language impairment.
OBJECTIVE
This study investigated the association of 2 mechanisms of working memory (phonological short-term memory [PSTM], attentional resource capacity/allocation) with the sentence comprehension of school-age children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 2 groups of control children.


METHODS
Twenty-four children with SLI, 18 age-matched (CA) children, and 16 language- and memory-matched (LMM) children completed a nonword repetition task (PSTM), the competing language processing task (CLPT; resource capacity/allocation), and a sentence comprehension task comprising complex and simple sentences.


RESULTS
(1) The SLI group performed worse than the CA group on each memory task; (2) all 3 groups showed comparable simple sentence comprehension, but for complex sentences, the SLI and LMM groups performed worse than the CA group; (3) for the SLI group, (a) CLPT correlated with complex sentence comprehension, and (b) nonword repetition correlated with simple sentence comprehension; (4) for CA children, neither memory variable correlated with either sentence type; and (5) for LMM children, only CLPT correlated with complex sentences.


CONCLUSIONS
Comprehension of both complex and simple grammar by school-age children with SLI is a mentally demanding activity, requiring significant working memory resources.
Montgomery
James W
JW
Hearing, Speech, and Language Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, USA. montgoj1@ohio.edu
Evans
Julia L
JL
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D032882:Comprehension; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D013067:Speech Perception