Syntactic Versus Memory Accounts of the Sentence Comprehension Deficits of Specific Language Impairment: Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Overview

Journal J Speech Lang Hear Res

Date 2016 Dec 16

PMID 27973643

Citations 9

Authors

James W Montgomery

Ronald B Gillam

Julia L Evans

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Purpose: Compared with same-age typically developing peers, school-age children with specific language impairment (SLI) exhibit significant deficits in spoken sentence comprehension. They also demonstrate a range of memory limitations. Whether these 2 deficit areas are related is unclear. The present review article aims to (a) review 2 main theoretical accounts of SLI sentence comprehension and various studies supporting each and (b) offer a new, broader, more integrated memory-based framework to guide future SLI research, as we believe the available evidence favors a memory-based perspective of SLI comprehension limitations.

Method: We reviewed the literature on the sentence comprehension abilities of English-speaking children with SLI from 2 theoretical perspectives.

Results: The sentence comprehension limitations of children with SLI appear to be more fully captured by a memory-based perspective than by a syntax-specific deficit perspective.

Conclusions: Although a memory-based view appears to be the better account of SLI sentence comprehension deficits, this view requires refinement and expansion. Current memory-based perspectives of adult sentence comprehension, with proper modification, offer SLI investigators new, more integrated memory frameworks within which to study and better understand the sentence comprehension abilities of children with SLI.

Citing Articles

The neuroanatomy of developmental language disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Ullman M, Clark G, Pullman M, Lovelett J, Pierpont E, Jiang X Nat Hum Behav. 2024; 8(5):962-975.

PMID: 38491094 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-01843-6.

Moment-to-Moment Processing of Complex Sentences by Adults with and without Developmental Language Disorder.

Poll G, Martin A J Commun Disord. 2022; 99:106258.

PMID: 36029614 PMC: 9536528. DOI: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2022.106258.

Written Language Production in Children With Developmental Language Disorder.

Andreou G, Aslanoglou V Front Psychol. 2022; 13:833429.

PMID: 35360623 PMC: 8960732. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.833429.

A New Memory Perspective on the Sentence Comprehension Deficits of School-Age Children With Developmental Language Disorder: Implications for Theory, Assessment, and Intervention.

Montgomery J, Gillam R, Evans J Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch. 2021; 52(2):449-466.

PMID: 33826402 PMC: 8711711. DOI: 10.1044/2021_LSHSS-20-00128.

Sentence comprehension in patients with dementia of the Alzheimer's type.

Liu X, Wang W, Wang H, Sun Y PeerJ. 2019; 7:e8181.

PMID: 31824775 PMC: 6896939. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.8181.

References

Hsu H, Tomblin J, Christiansen M . Impaired statistical learning of non-adjacent dependencies in adolescents with specific language impairment. Front Psychol. 2014; 5:175. PMC: 3944677. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00175. View

Cowan N, Saults J, Blume C . Central and peripheral components of working memory storage. J Exp Psychol Gen. 2014; 143(5):1806-1836. PMC: 4172497. DOI: 10.1037/a0036814. View

Cowan N, Rouder J, Blume C, Saults J . Models of verbal working memory capacity: what does it take to make them work?. Psychol Rev. 2012; 119(3):480-99. PMC: 3618891. DOI: 10.1037/a0027791. View

Victorino K, Schwartz R . Control of Auditory Attention in Children With Specific Language Impairment. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2015; 58(4):1245-57. PMC: 4765193. DOI: 10.1044/2015_JSLHR-L-14-0181. View

Henry L, Messer D, Nash G . Executive functioning in children with specific language impairment. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2011; 53(1):37-45. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2011.02430.x. View

Friedmann N, Novogrodsky R . The acquisition of relative clause comprehension in Hebrew: a study of SLI and normal development. J Child Lang. 2004; 31(3):661-81. DOI: 10.1017/s0305000904006269. View

Van Dyke J . Interference effects from grammatically unavailable constituents during sentence processing. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2007; 33(2):407-30. PMC: 2077343. DOI: 10.1037/0278-7393.33.2.407. View

Unsworth N, Engle R . The nature of individual differences in working memory capacity: active maintenance in primary memory and controlled search from secondary memory. Psychol Rev. 2007; 114(1):104-32. DOI: 10.1037/0033-295X.114.1.104. View

Gaulin C, Campbell T . Procedure for assessing verbal working memory in normal school-age children: some preliminary data. Percept Mot Skills. 1994; 79(1 Pt 1):55-64. DOI: 10.2466/pms.1994.79.1.55. View

10.

Swets B, DeSmet T, Hambrick D, Ferreira F . The role of working memory in syntactic ambiguity resolution: a psychometric approach. J Exp Psychol Gen. 2007; 136(1):64-81. DOI: 10.1037/0096-3445.136.1.64. View

11.

Gordon P, Hendrick R, Johnson M . Memory interference during language processing. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2001; 27(6):1411-23. DOI: 10.1037//0278-7393.27.6.1411. View

12.

Hestvik A, Schwartz R, Tornyova L . Relative clause gap-filling in children with specific language impairment. J Psycholinguist Res. 2010; 39(5):443-56. PMC: 3017297. DOI: 10.1007/s10936-010-9151-1. View

13.

Beck S, Hanson C, Puffenberger S, Benninger K, Benninger W . A controlled trial of working memory training for children and adolescents with ADHD. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 2010; 39(6):825-36. DOI: 10.1080/15374416.2010.517162. View

14.

Engle R, Tuholski S, Laughlin J, Conway A . Working memory, short-term memory, and general fluid intelligence: a latent-variable approach. J Exp Psychol Gen. 1999; 128(3):309-331. DOI: 10.1037//0096-3445.128.3.309. View

15.

Marton K, Kelmenson L, Pinkhasova M . Inhibition control and working memory capacity in children with SLI. Psikhologyah. 2008; 50(2):110-121. PMC: 2423934. DOI: 10.2117/psysoc.2007.110. View

16.

Precious A, Conti-Ramsden G . Language-impaired children's comprehension of active versus passive sentences. Br J Disord Commun. 1988; 23(3):229-43. DOI: 10.3109/13682828809011935. View

17.

van der Lely H, Stollwerck L . A grammatical specific language impairment in children: an autosomal dominant inheritance?. Brain Lang. 1996; 52(3):484-504. DOI: 10.1006/brln.1996.0026. View

18.

Montgomery J, Evans J . Complex sentence comprehension and working memory in children with specific language impairment. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2008; 52(2):269-88. PMC: 4684953. DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2008/07-0116). View

19.

Hsu H, Bishop D . Grammatical Difficulties in Children with Specific Language Impairment: Is Learning Deficient?. Hum Dev. 2011; 53(5):264-277. PMC: 3191529. DOI: 10.1159/000321289. View

20.

Weismer S, Plante E, Jones M, Tomblin J . A functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation of verbal working memory in adolescents with specific language impairment. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2005; 48(2):405-25. DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2005/028). View