Sustained Attention in Developmental Language Disorder and Its Relation to Working Memory and Language.
Erin Smolak, Karla K McGregor, Tim Arbisi-Kelm and 1 others
PMID 33166200WHAT IT FOUND
Children with developmental language disorder tracked a moving visual target less accurately than typical peers, even when memory checks were removed.
In this group, attention also related to narrative language and working memory, but not in typical peers.
Key findings
01Children with DLD performed worse than children with TLD on visual sustained attention across both Track-It conditions after incorrect memory trials were removed.
02In the DLD group, sustained attention was associated with overall narrative language, narrative language production, and working memory.
03In the TLD group, sustained attention was not associated with narrative language or working memory.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The groups differed in parental education and nonverbal IQ, although the main model adjusted for both. The Track-It task may have been too easy for the TLD group, especially in the homogeneous condition, so the range of scores was restricted. The study was cross-sectional and used correlations, so it cannot show that attention causes working memory or language difficulties. ADHD was not excluded, and ADHD status was not included as a covariate because performance overlapped between children with and without ADHD. Several analyses excluded outliers or missing data, so the number of children used in some results was smaller than the full sample. No intervention was tested, so the suggestion that attention-based treatment could help language goals is not established.
Declared interests
Funding was from NIH grants. No other sponsor or conflict information is given in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that treating sustained attention will improve language. This study measured associations in children with DLD and did not test an intervention; the authors note that intervention evidence is still preliminary and equivocal.