The Interplay Between Language, Executive Functioning, Theory of Mind and Socio-Emotional Functioning - A Comparison Between Adolescents With and Without DLD.
Elke Arts, Bram O De Castro, Ellen Luteijn and 2 others
PMID 41408671WHAT IT FOUND
Adolescents with DLD had lower receptive vocabulary and lower scores on understanding what others think, and lower parent-reported socio-emotional functioning than typically developing peers.
When all abilities were considered together, only understanding what others think was associated with socio-emotional functioning.
Key findings
01The DLD group scored significantly lower than the typically developing group on receptive vocabulary, understanding what others think, and parent-reported socio-emotional functioning, while the groups did not differ significantly on working memory, cognitive flexibility or emotion recognition.
02Across both groups, understanding what others think was the only significant predictor of total socio-emotional functioning when language, working memory, cognitive flexibility and emotion recognition were considered together.
03On parent-reported socio-emotional subscales, the DLD group met the functional norm only on adapting to people and environment and presenting yourself positively to others, while the typically developing group met it on all subscales.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot show that language, theory of mind or executive function cause socio-emotional problems, or that improving theory of mind would improve socio-emotional functioning. Socio-emotional functioning was measured only by parent report, so adolescent self-report and peer report were not available. Only receptive vocabulary was assessed, so expressive language problems, which may affect social interaction, were not examined. Executive function was measured with visual working memory and a card-sorting task, not attention or inhibition, and the tasks were calm single-task measures rather than complex daily social demands. The cognitive theory of mind task was newly developed and not standardized, and the emotion recognition task may have been too static to detect subtle differences. Participants were recruited from special schools and regular schools at the same educational level, so results may not apply to adolescents with DLD in other settings or with different language severity. The DLD group showed greater variability than the typically developing group, so average differences may not describe every adolescent with DLD. The sample was relatively small and preliminary, and missing data were removed pairwise.
Declared interests
The study was supported by National Regieorgaan Onderwijsonderzoek grant 4O.5.19630.066. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that cognitive theory of mind training will improve socio-emotional functioning. The study is cross-sectional and shows only an association, and no intervention was tested.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →