Relationship among Executive Functions, Vocabulary and Reading Skills in School-Aged Children with and without Poor Vocabulary

A Role for Visual Memory in Vocabulary Development: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Although attention and early associative learning in preverbal children is predominantly driven by rapid eye-movements in response to moving visual stimuli and sounds/words (e.g., associating the word "bottle" with the object), the literature examining the role of visual attention and memory in ongoing vocabulary development across childhood is limited. Thus, this systematic review and meta-analysis examined the association between visual memory and vocabulary development, including moderators such as age and task selection, in neurotypical children aged 2-to-12 years, from the brain-based perspective of cognitive neuroscience. Visual memory tasks were classified according to the visual characteristics of the stimuli and the neural networks known to preferentially process such information, including consideration of the distinction between the ventral visual stream (processing more static visuo-perceptual details, such as form or colour) and the more dynamic dorsal visual stream (processing spatial temporal action-driven information). Final classifications included spatio-temporal span tasks, visuo-perceptual or spatial concurrent array tasks, and executive judgment tasks. Visuo-perceptual concurrent array tasks, reliant on ventral stream processing, were moderately associated with vocabulary, while tasks measuring spatio-temporal spans, associated with dorsal stream processing, and executive judgment tasks (central executive), showed only weak correlations with vocabulary. These findings have important implications for health professionals and researchers interested in language, as they advocate for the development of more targeted language learning interventions that include specific and relevant aspects of visual processing and memory, such as ventral stream visuo-perceptual details (i.e., shape or colour).

Attentional shifting in children with developmental language disorder: A meta-analysis

PURPOSE

A meta-analysis investigating attentional shifting in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) was conducted. Task type, participant age, and dependent variable metric were examined as significant moderators.

METHOD

A systematic literature review identified 20 studies that met the following inclusionary criteria:(a) were published between 1994-2018; (b) included children with DLD aged 3;00 to 17;11 years; and (c) used behavioral performance-based measures of attentional shifting.

RESULTS

Children with DLD performed poorer than age-matched peers with typically developing language (TL) by 0.42 SD across attentional shifting studies. Moderator analyses showed an effect of task type, as children with DLD performed comparatively poorer on set-shifting (g = -.52) but not alternating tasks (g = -.18). Neither age nor dependent variable used to measure attentional shifting were significant moderators.

DISCUSSION

Children with DLD exhibit deficits in attentional shifting relative to same-age peers. Results of moderator analyses reveal that deficits were found on set-shifting but not alternating tasks and that these deficits remained consistent whether researchers measure accuracy or response time switch costs to ascertain attentional shifting ability. In addition, moderator analysis results suggest that attentional shifting deficits are consistent in preschool-age and school-age children with DLD.