Non-linguistic cognitive treatment for primary language impairment

Kerry Danahy Ebert, Kathryn Kohnert

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

32 Scopus citations

Abstract

Children with primary or 'specific' language impairment (PLI) demonstrate subtle deficits in non-linguistic cognitive processing skills that may play a causal or contributing role in PLI. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility that short-term treatment of non-linguistic cognitive processing skills improves language abilities in school-aged children with PLI. Two children with severe PLI participated in a treatment study following a single-subject multiple-baseline design across participants and skill areas. Treatment activities targeted auditory memory and speed of processing for visual information. Results of both repeated dependent measures and pre- and post- standardized language testing indicated that participants made gains in expressive language skills, particularly naming. This preliminary evidence suggests that treatment of non-linguistic cognitive processing skills may facilitate change in some areas of language skill. Treatment of non-linguistic processing skills should be further explored as a complement to more traditional language interventions.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)647-664
Number of pages18
JournalClinical Linguistics and Phonetics
Volume23
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was funded by the Graduate Research Partnership Program through the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota (UMN) and by the Bryng Bryngelson research fund in the Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences at UMN. Portions of this study were presented at the 2008 Symposium for Research in Child Language Disorders in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. We thank Christine Wing for assistance with reliability as well as the children and their families who participated in this study. We are grateful to Dr Marc Fey and Dr James Montgomery for helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.

Keywords

  • Non-linguistic processing
  • Specific language impairment
  • Treatment

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