title: Phonological and lexical effects in verbal recall by children with specific language impairments.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The present study examined how phonological and lexical knowledge influences memory in children with specific language impairments (SLI). Previous work showed recall advantages for typical adults and children due to word frequency and phonotactic pattern frequency and a recall disadvantage due to phonological similarity among words. While children with SLI have well-documented memory difficulties, it is not clear whether these language knowledge factors also influence recall in this population.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixteen children with SLI (mean age = 10;2) and chronological age-matched typically developing children (CAM) controls recalled lists of words differing in phonological similarity, word frequency and phonotactic pattern frequency. While previous studies used a small set of words appearing in multiple word lists, the current study used a larger set of words, without replacement, so that children could not gain practice with individual test items.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All main effects were significant. Interactions revealed that children with SLI were affected by similarity, but less so than their peers, comparably affected by word frequency and unaffected by phonotactic pattern frequency.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results due to phonological similarity suggest that children with SLI use less efficient encoding, while results due to word frequency and phonotactic pattern frequency were mixed. Children with SLI used coarse-grained language knowledge (word frequency) comparably with peers, but were less able to use fine-grained knowledge (phonotactic pattern frequency). Paired with phonological similarity results, this suggests that children with SLI have difficulty establishing robust phonological knowledge for use in language tasks.
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences, University of Colorado-Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA. jeff.coady@colorado.edu
authors.forename: Jeffry A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Coady
authors.forename: Elina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mainela-Arnold
authors.forename: Julia L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Evans
mesh_terms: D001184:Articulation Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D010700:Phonetics; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D014825:Vocabulary