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Implicit Spoken Words and Motor Sequences Learning Are Impaired in Children with Specific Language Impairment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

Lise Desmottes ,
Thierry Meulemans  and
Christelle Maillart
Lise Desmottes*
Affiliation:
Department of Speech and Language Therapy, University of Liege, B38, Liège, Belgium
Thierry Meulemans
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Liege, B33, Liège, Belgium
Christelle Maillart
Affiliation:
Department of Speech and Language Therapy, University of Liege, B38, Liège, Belgium
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to: Lise Desmottes, Department of Psychology, Cognition and Behavior, University of Liege, B38, rue de l’Aunaie, 30, 4000 Liège, Belgium. E-mail: lise.desmottes@ulg.ac.be
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Abstract

Objectives: 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. Conclusions: Overall, this pattern of results supports the procedural deficit hypothesis and suggests that domain general implicit sequence learning is impaired in SLI. (JINS, 2016, 22, 1–10)

Keywords

Implicit sequence learningLanguage development disordersProcedural learningSpecific language impairmentSerial learningChild language
Type
Research Articles
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 22 , Issue 5 , May 2016 , pp. 520 - 529
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2016 

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