Implicit spoken words and motor sequences learning are impaired in children with Specific Language Impairment

[en] Objective. This study aims to compare verbal and motor implicit sequence learning abilities in children with and without Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Methods. Forty-eight children (24 control and 24 SLI) were administered the Serial Search Task (SST), which enables the simultaneous assessment of implicit spoken words and visuomotor sequences learning. Results. Results showed that control children implicitly learned both the spoken words as well as the motor sequences. In contrast, children with SLI showed deficits in both types of learning. Moreover, correlational analyses revealed that SST performance was linked with grammatical abilities in control children but with lexical abilities in children with SLI. Conclusion. Overall, this pattern of results supports the procedural deficit hypothesis and suggests that domain general implicit sequence learning is impaired in SLI.

Disciplines :

Theoretical & cognitive psychology

Author, co-author :

Desmottes, Lise ; Université de Liège > Département de Logopédie > Logopédie clinique

Meulemans, Thierry ; Université de Liège > Département de Psychologie > Neuropsychologie

Maillart, Christelle ; Université de Liège > Département de Logopédie > Logopédie clinique

Language :

English

Title :

Implicit spoken words and motor sequences learning are impaired in children with Specific Language Impairment

Publication date :

2016

Journal title :

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society

ISSN :

1355-6177

eISSN :

1469-7661

Publisher :

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Funders :

F.R.S.-FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique [BE]

Available on ORBi :

since 24 March 2016

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