Cardy Janis E Oram, Tannock Rosemary, Johnson Andrew M, Johnson Carla J
University of Western Ontario, School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Elborn College, London, ON, Canada N6G 1H1.
J Commun Disord. 2010 Mar-Apr;43(2):77-91. doi: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2009.09.003. Epub 2009 Oct 3.
Slowed speed of processing and impaired rapid temporal processing (RTP) have been proposed to underlie specific language impairment (SLI), but it is not clear that these dysfunctions are unique to SLI. We considered the contribution of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which frequently co-occurs with language impairments, to performances on processing tasks. School-aged children who had SLI without concurrent ADHD (n=14), ADHD without concurrent SLI (n=14), and typical development (TD, n=28) performed two nonverbal speeded tasks and one auditory RTP task. RTP impairments were found in many children with SLI and ADHD, and some children with TD. Children with ADHD demonstrated slower processing speed than children with SLI or TD. Overall, findings questioned the uniqueness of these processing dysfunctions to language impairments and the validity of the behavioural paradigms traditionally used to estimate processing dysfunctions. Accounts of SLI should be further scrutinized by considering the influence of other disorders.
Readers will (1) become familiar with areas of overlap between SLI and ADHD, (2) understand some of the confounds associated with behavioural measures of processing speed in children, and (3) recognize the value in testing models of language disorders by including participants with other types of disorders.
加工速度减慢和快速时间加工（RTP）受损被认为是特定语言障碍（SLI）的基础，但尚不清楚这些功能障碍是否为SLI所特有。我们考虑了经常与语言障碍同时出现的注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）对加工任务表现的影响。患有SLI但无并发ADHD的学龄儿童（n = 14）、患有ADHD但无并发SLI的学龄儿童（n = 14）以及发育正常（TD，n = 28）的学龄儿童完成了两项非语言快速任务和一项听觉RTP任务。在许多患有SLI和ADHD的儿童以及一些发育正常的儿童中发现了RTP受损情况。患有ADHD的儿童比患有SLI或发育正常的儿童表现出更慢的加工速度。总体而言，研究结果对这些加工功能障碍在语言障碍中的独特性以及传统上用于评估加工功能障碍的行为范式的有效性提出了质疑。应通过考虑其他障碍的影响来进一步审视SLI的相关描述。
读者将（1）熟悉SLI和ADHD之间的重叠领域，（2）了解与儿童加工速度行为测量相关的一些混淆因素，以及（3）认识到通过纳入患有其他类型障碍的参与者来测试语言障碍模型的价值。
