Language Impairment Phonological Memory Deficits

¶ … Language Impairment

Phonological Memory Deficits in Language Disordered Children: Is There a Causal Connection?

Working memory plays an important role in the ability to learn new tasks and may be connected to the ability to read and learn language in children (Gathercole & Baddeley, 1990). The central problem of this research study is to identify the role that memory plays in the retention of phonological language elements. It explores the role of impaired phonological memory plays in developmental language disorders.

The experimental design compared memory performance in children with language disorders with those of comparably aged child that did not have language disorders. The sample size was small, and therefore limited the ability of the results to be generalized to the population at large. However, the results did reveal that language disordered children performed worse on nonword repetition than the control group. The potential of hearing disorders was ruled out for both the control and experimental group.

The dependent variable was phonological memory, as measured by a series of three different test tasks. The independent variables was the presence of language disorder in the experimental group. The study used statistical analysis to compare the performance of the experimental group (language-disordered children) with the control group (non-language disordered children). All children in both groups were between 7-8 years of age and were equal on all other aspects, aside from the presence of a language disorder. Children were assessed in matched pairs, as to their equivalent of non-verbal intelligence.

Standardized tests measured receptive vocabulary, reading ability, oral comprehension, grammar reception and non-verbal intelligence using scales that are accepted as British educational standards. Results on each of these tests were compared to age-specific norms. Authors chose these specific tests, as they reflected different aspects of language and memory.

The authors concluded that memory skilled tapped by repetition play a central role in language development. It also demonstrated that differences are greatest for three and four syllable non-words than for single syllables (Gathercole & Baddeley, 1990). Non-word repetition abilities were found to be different between the language-disordered and control groups. Phonological encoding tests indicated that the working memory of poor readers was characterized by a reduced capacity to store phonological elements (Gathercole & Baddeley, 1990).

The tests and parameters chosen to represent working memory in children with language disorders were appropriate for obtaining the desired research outcomes. The tests focused on memory, rather than reading ability in an attempt to discover the root cause of language disabilities. Language disordered children were found to have poorer storage and recall abilities for lists of words than non-language disordered children (Gathercole & Baddeley, 1990). The results of the study support the hypothesis of the study.

Since conduct of this study, other researchers have examined the link between reading disabilities and working memory. Results of these later studies corroborated with the results of this study. Deficits associated with complex memory and videospatial short-term memory correlated with deficits in math and language abilities (Gathercole, Alloway, & Willis, et al., 2005). The connection between working memory deficits and language deficits, particularly reading, are supported by empirical evidence. However, although it would appear that the direction of causality would appear to be in the direction of memory capacity, no evidence was found to support this view.