Executive functions and the contribution of short-term memory span in children with specific language impairment.
OBJECTIVE
An increasing number of results show that specific language impairment (SLI) is often associated with impairments in executive functions (EF), but the nature, extent, and generality of these deficits is yet unclear. The aim of the paper is to present results from verbal and nonverbal tasks examining EF in children with SLI and their age-matched typically developing (TD) peers.


METHODS
31 children with SLI were tested on verbal and nonverbal versions of simple and complex span, fluency, N-back, and Stroop tasks. Their performance was compared with 31 TD children matched on age and nonverbal IQ. The design allows us to examine whether executive functions are similarly affected in SLI in verbal and nonverbal tasks.


RESULTS
The SLI group showed difficulties in verbal versions of complex span (listening span task) and fluency but not in inhibition (Stroop tasks) relative to TD age-matched children. Including simple verbal span (digit span) as a covariate eliminated group differences on both verbal tasks.


CONCLUSIONS
Children with SLI were found to be impaired on several verbal measures of EF, but these differences were largely due to more fundamental deficits in verbal short-term span.
Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics.
Ágnes
Á
Lukács
Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics.
Enikő
E
Ladányi
Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics.
Kata
K
Fazekas
Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics.
Ferenc
F
Kemény
D002648:Child; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D011939:Mental Recall; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D057190:Stroop Test; D014705:Verbal Behavior