Archibald, L. (2008). \"Working Memory

¶ … Archibald, L. (2008). "Working memory and learning in children with developmental coordination disorder and specific language impairment." Journal of learning disabilities 41(3), pp. 251-62.

This article involved a comparison study between two groups of children ranging in age from six to eleven. One group of children had been previously diagnosed with developmental coordination disorder, and the children in the other group had each been identified with a specific language impairment. Each group was administered several tests that measured various types of memory skills, and each group also completed standardized tests to measure their learning ability. The purpose of this study was in part to determine more fully and accurately the role that memory plays in learning. The authors note that various memory functions and their apparent impairment have been linked to many different developmental disorders, including learning disabilities, reading impairments, and specific language impairments, but that no comparative research has been done (Alloway & Archibald 2008).

To this end, the authors studied working memory profiles in the two groups of children with different developmental pathologies in an effort to better understand the way working memory function affects development (Alloway & Archibald 2008). Previous to this study, it had already been well established that memory differences can play an important part in explaining individual differences in learning, with poor memory skills most often associated with failing to in reading, mathematics, and language comprehension (Alloway & Archibald 2008). Other areas of concern to the authors with a noted relationship to memory were vocabulary acquisition and visuospatial skills, highlighting memory's importance in all learning (Alloway & Archibald 2008).

In order to determine both the learning and the memory differences that existed in the two groups of children with two different identified developmental disorders/impairments, a series of different standardized test was administered privately to each individual participant in the study, with no more than two tests (and usually just one) administered at a time (Alloway & Archibald 2008). The first round of tests measured working memory, and subsequent tests assessed attainment abilities of the individual children in various learning areas. The tests that the researchers used had all been previously vetted by the scientific community, and were accepted as valid and reliable measures of the component that the researchers were specifically testing for in each instance, and all recommendations concerning the individual tests used (such as subtest order and the test-taking environment) were followed (Alloway & Archibald 2008).