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Purpose

Little is known about the relationship between sentence production and phonological working memory in school-age children. To fill this gap, we examined how strongly these constructs correlate. We also compared diagnostic groups’ working memory abilities to see if differences co-occurred with qualitative differences in their sentences.

Method

We conducted Bayesian analyses on data from seven- to nine-year-old children (n = 165 typical language, n = 81 dyslexia-only, n = 43 comorbid dyslexia and developmental language disorder). We correlated sentence production and working memory scores and conducted t tests between groups’ working memory scores and sentence length, lexical diversity, and complexity.

Results

Correlations were positive but weak. The dyslexic and typical groups had dissimilar working memory and comparable sentence quality. The dyslexic and comorbid groups had comparable working memory but dissimilar sentence quality.

Conclusion

Contrary to literature-based predictions, phonological working memory and sentence production are weakly related in school-age children.

Summary

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) show significant difficulties mastering language yet exhibit normal-range nonverbal intelligence, normal hearing and speech, and no neurological impairment. Deficits in sentence comprehension represent a major feature of school-age children’s language profile. So do memory limitations, including deficits in verbal working memory, controlled attention, and long-term memory. Though there is general consensus that the memory and comprehension deficits of these children relate in some fashion, the relationship has historically been unclear. In this chapter, we present the first conceptually integrated and empirically validated model of the sentence comprehension abilities of school-age children with DLD that describes the structural relationship among all these abilities.

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Phonological Working Memory and Sentence Production in School-Age Children with Typical Language, Dyslexia, and Comorbid Dyslexia and Developmental Language Disorder

34 - A New Perspective on the Connection between Memory and Sentence Comprehension in Children with Developmental Language Disorder

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Phonological Working Memory and Sentence Production in School-Age Children with Typical Language, Dyslexia, and Comorbid Dyslexia and Developmental Language Disorder

34 - A New Perspective on the Connection between Memory and Sentence Comprehension in Children with Developmental Language Disorder

Summary