The role of memory in SLI: Understanding working, procedural and declarative memory deficits in Specific Language Impairment (360G-Wellcome-079305_Z_06_Z)

This study aims to comprehensively examine memory abilities in children with specific language impairment (SLI). Specifically, this investigation will a) test recent claims that children with SLI have procedural memory difficulties in the context of intact declarative memory abilities and b) compare this position to accounts which view working memory impairments as the primary cause for expressive and receptive difficulties in children with SLI. In addition, the present investigation will examine the relationship between different language deficits and different types or combinations of memory impairments. This approach will include both broad levels of language (i.e. expressive and/or receptive difficulties) as well as more specific areas of difficulty (i.e. vocabulary versus grammatical morphology: past tense "ed"). Fifty children with SLI and fifty non-impaired comparison children aged between 8- 10 years will participate in a number of tasks indexing different aspects of language and memory function. The findings of this project will make a significant theoretical contribution to our understanding of the role memory has in the genesis of the language impairments in SLI as well as having potential to inform practice in terms of specifying in more detail the possible relationship between cognitive difficulties and language functioning in this population.