Phonological representation of children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI).

Abstract

Background: children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) have difficulties with speech processing. These difficulties affect the development of phonologic representations.

Aim: to evaluate the abilities of children with normal language development (NLD) and those with SLI in distinguishing words from non-words in a lexical decision task.

Method: two groups were involved in this study: the Control Group (GC), with no language disorders, composed by 36 subjects, and the Research Group (RG), with 18 subjects, all diagnosed with SLI, aging form 4 to 8:9 years. Children from both groups were arranged in three subgroups, according to the receptive vocabulary. Forty eight three syllable words were selected, being 24 real words and 24 that were manipulated in order to obtain non-words. Three variables were considered: (a) modification extension, (b) modification positioning and (c) modification type. Children had to decide whether a phonological sequence consisted of a word or a non-word.

Results: even though children were matched by lexical age, there were differences between GC and RG. The RG presented more difficulty in lexical decision, not only for words but also for non-words. Both groups, with lexical age of 4 years, struggled more in this task when compared with groups with lexical age of 5 and 6 years.

Conclusion: children with SLI presented deficit in phonological representation when compared with children with NLD. This difference in performance can be explained by differences in the formation and retention of working memory representations, auditory discrimination and motor planning and execution.