Abstract
Although results vary across individual studies, a large body of evidence suggests
that children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have domain-general deficits
in executive function compared with peers with typically developing language. Poorer
performance for children with DLD has been reported on verbal and nonverbal measures
of sustained selective attention, working memory, inhibition, and shifting. However,
examination of the variability of task scores among both children with and without
DLD reveals a wide range of executive function performance for both groups. Additionally,
using executive function scores to classify children into DLD versus typical groups
results in classification accuracy that is not clinically useful. This evidence indicates
that group-level differences in executive function abilities between children with
and without DLD cannot be applied at the individual level. Many children with DLD
appear to have intact executive function abilities, which undermines the possibility
that poor executive functioning causes language deficits in this population. However,
a substantial number of children with DLD also have executive function deficits, and,
therefore, therapy approaches with this population should consider both their language
and executive function abilities.
Keywords
developmental language disorder - specific language impairment - executive function
- attention
