Procedural learning and school-age language outcomes in children with and without a history of late talking.
Anna Kautto, Elina Mainela-Arnold
PMID 35761759WHAT IT FOUND
Children with a history of late talking did not have weaker procedural learning or motor planning than peers.
However, in children with typical early development, weaker procedural learning predicted lower school-age language scores. This suggests procedural learning may identify language risks in children who were not flagged as late talkers.
Key findings
01Children with a history of late talking showed similar procedural learning (sequence learning) and motor planning abilities compared to children with typical early development.
02Among children with typical early development, weaker procedural learning was associated with lower school-age language abilities, but this association was not found in children with a history of late talking.
03Motor planning abilities, measured by grasp choice in a rotation task, were not associated with school-age language abilities or a history of late talking.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study included relatively few children clinically identified with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), so findings may not apply to severe cases. The SRT task required a correction for sustained attention effects, which may complicate the interpretation of the procedural learning results. The ESC task structure may have had too few control trials to properly detect perseverative errors, limiting conclusions about motor planning deficits.
Declared interests
The authors report no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume procedural learning deficits cause late talking. The study found no difference in procedural learning between late talkers and typically developing children. The link between procedural learning and language outcomes was only significant in children who had typical early development, not those with a history of late talking.