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Language and inhibition in language impairment (Larson et al., 2020)

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posted on 2020-03-25, 19:06 authored by Caroline Larson, David Kaplan, Margarita Kaushanskaya, Susan Ellis Weismer
Background: This study examined predictive relationships between two indices of language—receptive vocabulary and morphological comprehension—and inhibition in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing (TD) children.
Methods: Participants included 30 children with SLI and 41 TD age-matched peers (8–12 years). At two time points separated by 1 year, we assessed receptive vocabulary and morphological comprehension via standardized language measures and inhibition via a Flanker task. We used Bayesian model averaging and Bayesian regression analytical techniques.
Results: Findings indicated predictive relationships between language indices and inhibition reaction time (RT), but not between language indices and inhibition accuracy. For the SLI group, Year 1 inhibition RT predicted Year 2 morphological comprehension. For the TD group, Year 1 morphological comprehension predicted Year 2 inhibition RT.
Conclusions: This study provides preliminary evidence of a predictive relationship between language and inhibition, but this relationship differed between children with SLI and those with typical development. Findings suggest that inhibition RT played a larger predictive role in later morphological comprehension in children with SLI relative to the other relationships examined. Targeting inhibition skills as a part of language intervention may improve subsequent morphological comprehension.

Supplemental Material S1. Bayesian Model Averaging; BMA Output – Incongruent Condition, Congruent Condition; Bayesian Linear Regression, Incongruent Condition, Congruent Condition.

Larson, C., Kaplan, D., Kaushanskaya, M., & Ellis Weismer, S. (2020). Language and inhibition: Predictive relationships in children with language impairment relative to typically developing peers. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_JSLHR-19-00210

Funding

This research was supported by National Institutes of Health Grants R01 DC011750 (Ellis Weismer and Kaushanskaya, multiple principal investigators), T32 DC005359 (Ellis Weismer, principal investigator), and U54 HD03352 core grant to the Waisman Center.

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