Premium
Role of auditory non‐verbal working memory in sentence repetition for bilingual children with primary language impairment
Author(s) -
Ebert Kerry Danahy
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
international journal of language and communication disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.101
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1460-6984
pISSN - 1368-2822
DOI - 10.1111/1460-6984.12090
Subject(s) - repetition (rhetorical device) , sentence , psychology , working memory , short term memory , cognitive psychology , linguistics , cognition , philosophy , neuroscience
Background Sentence repetition performance is attracting increasing interest as a valuable clinical marker for primary (or specific) language impairment (LI) in both monolingual and bilingual populations. Multiple aspects of memory appear to contribute to sentence repetition performance, but non‐verbal memory has not yet been considered. Aims To explore the relationship between a measure of non‐verbal auditory working memory (NVWM) and sentence repetition performance in a sample of bilingual children with LI. Methods & Procedures Forty‐seven school‐aged Spanish–English bilingual children with LI completed sentence repetition and non‐word repetition tasks in both Spanish and English as well as an NVWM task. Hierarchical multiple linear regression was used to predict sentence repetition in each language using age, non‐word repetition and NVWM. Outcomes & Results NVWM predicted unique variance in sentence repetition performance in both languages after accounting for chronological age and language‐specific phonological memory, as measured by non‐word repetition. Conclusions & Implications Domain‐general memory resources play a unique role in sentence repetition performance in children with LI. Non‐verbal working memory weaknesses may contribute to the poor performance of children with LI on sentence repetition tasks.