Short-term and working memory skills in primary school-aged children with specific language impairment and children with pragmatic language impairment: phonological, linguistic and visuo-spatial aspects.
BACKGROUND
Children with specific language impairment (CwSLI) are consistently reported to have short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) difficulties.


OBJECTIVE
To compare STM and WM abilities in CwSLI with children with pragmatic language impairment (CwPLI).


METHODS
Primary school-aged CwSLI (n= 12) and CwPLI (n= 23) were assessed on measures of STM and WM.


RESULTS
CwPLI had significantly higher scores than CwSLI on STM tasks, and this difference could not be accounted for by differences in receptive language ability. There were no between-group differences for WM tasks. The majority of CwSLI and a significant proportion of CwPLI scored in the impaired range on each of the memory measures. In contrast, some CwPLI scored within the normal range.


CONCLUSIONS
CwPLI present with a different profile of STM but not WM ability to CwSLI. Clinical implications are discussed.
Human Communication and Deafness Group, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. Jenny.Freed@Manchester.ac.uk
Jenny
J
Freed
Elaine
E
Lockton
Catherine
C
Adams
D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010699:Phonation / Q000502:physiology*; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*