Effects of Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and bilingualism on verbal short-term memory

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 301-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Meir
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Digit Span ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Negative Effect

Abstract The current study assessed independent and combined effects of SLI and bilingualism on tasks tapping into verbal short-term memory (vSTM) with varying linguistic load in two languages (Russian and Hebrew). The study explored the extent to which the presence of SLI is related to limited vSTM storage and bilingualism is associated with reduced vocabulary size. A total of 190 monolingual and bilingual children aged 5;5–6;8 participated in the current study: 108 sequential Russian-Hebrew bilinguals (18 with SLI), 48 Hebrew monolinguals (13 with SLI) and 34 Russian monolinguals (14 with SLI). Children performed three repetition tasks: forward-digit span (FWD), non-word repetition (NWR) and sentence repetition (SRep); bilingual children were tested in both of their languages. Results indicated a negative effect of SLI on all experimental tasks tapping into vSTM. The effect of SLI rose as a function of increased linguistic load. Regarding bilingualism, no effect was found on the measure of vSTM with the lowest linguistic load (FWD), while its effect was robust once the linguistic load was increased (SRep). The results reported in this study bring evidence that lower performance on measures of vSTM in children with SLI and bilingual children stem from different sources. Although, children with SLI have limitations of vSTM, deficient vSTM cannot fully account for the linguistic difficulties observed in children with SLI. As for bilingualism, it does not affect verbal storage when the linguistic load is minimal, while poor performance in bilingual children on tasks with greater linguistic load is attributed to smaller vocabulary sizes.

scholarly journals Beyond words: Phonological short-term memory and syntactic impairment in specific language impairment

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 545-547 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothy V. M. Bishop
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Molecular Genetic ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Specific Language

The assessment of nonword repetition in children goes back at least to 1974, when the Goldman–Fristoe–Woodcock Auditory Skills Battery was published, including a subtest (Sound Mimicry) assessing nonword repetition (Goldman, Fristoe, & Woodcock, 1974). Nevertheless, it was not until 20 years later, when Gathercole and Baddeley (1990) reported a study of short-term memory in children with specific language impairment (SLI), that a theoretical framework was developed linking deficits in nonword repetition to impaired language acquisition. Gathercole's Keynote in this issue (2006) tells the story of how this initial study revealed a striking nonword repetition deficit in children with SLI, complementing work on typically developing children showing a major role of phonological short-term memory (STM) in word learning. As she points out, the story is a complex one: phonological STM is not the only skill tapped by the nonword repetition task, and children may do poorly for different reasons. Furthermore, relationships between nonword repetition and word learning may be reciprocal, with vocabulary level affecting children's ability to segment nonwords efficiently and retain them in memory. However, the original finding, that deficient nonword repetition is a strong correlate of SLI, has stood the test of time, to the extent that poor performance on this test has been used successfully as a marker of a heritable phenotype in molecular genetic studies of SLI (Newbury, Monaco, & Bishop, 2005).

scholarly journals Short-Term Memory Skills in Children With Specific Language Impairment

2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 313-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Botting ◽  
Popi Psarou ◽  
Tamara Caplin ◽  
Laura Nevin
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Specific Language
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