Newcomen Child Development Centre, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London, London, UK.
Dev Med Child Neurol. 2011 Aug;53(8):711-6. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8749.2011.03936.x. Epub 2011 May 18.
A deficit in non-word repetition (NWR), a measure of short-term phonological memory proposed as a marker for language impairment, is found not only in language impairment but also in reading impairment. We evaluated the strength of association between language impairment and reading impairment in children with current, past, and no language impairment and assessed any differential impairment of NWR, compared with two other tests of verbal memory in children with language impairment with and without reading impairment.
Our sample comprised children aged 6-16y 11mo participating in a study of the genetics of language impairment: 78 children from 68 families (53 males, 25 females) with current language impairment (C-LI), compared with their 74 siblings: 25 children (18 males, seven females) with a past history of language impairment and 49 children (27 males, 22 females) who had never had a language impairment. The tests used were the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF III), the Children's Test of Non-word Repetition (CN-Rep), the Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning (WRAML) verbal memory index, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III (WISC-III) digit span, and the Wechsler Objective Reading Dimensions (WORD(UK) ).
Reading impairment was present in two-thirds of the children with current language impairment. NWR deficits were significantly worse in children with language impairment who had reading impairment in reading decoding (p=0.007 and 0.004 - average group compared with borderline and definitely impaired groups respectively) or spelling (p=0.002 and 0.005 - average group compared with borderline and severely impaired groups respectively) (not correlated with severity of language impairment) but not comprehension impairment. In contrast, WISC digit span and WRAML verbal memory were impaired in all children with language impairment and did not differentiate those who also had reading impairment.
We suggest that current NWR ability may be a marker of a process specifically underlying language impairment, co-occurring with reading impairment involving reading decoding and spelling, rather than a generic correlate of language impairment. Other verbal memory deficits appear to be pervasive in children with language impairment.
非词重复（NWR）能力缺陷是一种短期语音记忆的衡量标准，被认为是语言障碍的标志物，不仅存在于语言障碍中，也存在于阅读障碍中。我们评估了当前、过去和无语言障碍儿童的语言障碍与阅读障碍之间的关联强度，并评估了语言障碍儿童（无论是否有阅读障碍）中 NWR 与其他两种言语记忆测试之间的任何差异损伤。
我们的样本包括参加语言障碍遗传学研究的 6-16 岁 11 个月的儿童：68 个家庭的 78 名儿童（53 名男性，25 名女性）患有当前的语言障碍（C-LI），与他们的 74 名兄弟姐妹相比：25 名儿童（18 名男性，7 名女性）有过去的语言障碍史和 49 名从未有过语言障碍的儿童（27 名男性，22 名女性）。使用的测试包括临床语言基础评估（CELF III）、儿童非词重复测试（CN-Rep）、广泛记忆和学习评估（WRAML）言语记忆指数、韦氏儿童智力量表-III（WISC-III）数字跨度和韦氏客观阅读维度（WORD(UK)）。
当前语言障碍儿童中有三分之二存在阅读障碍。在阅读解码（p=0.007 和 0.004-平均组与边缘组和严重受损组相比）或拼写（p=0.002 和 0.005-平均组与边缘组和严重受损组相比）存在阅读障碍的语言障碍儿童中，NWR 缺陷明显更差（与语言障碍的严重程度无关），但不与理解障碍相关。相比之下，WISC 数字跨度和 WRAML 言语记忆在所有语言障碍儿童中都受损，且不能区分那些也有阅读障碍的儿童。
我们认为当前的 NWR 能力可能是一种特定于语言障碍的过程标志物，与涉及阅读解码和拼写的阅读障碍共同发生，而不是语言障碍的通用相关物。其他言语记忆缺陷似乎在语言障碍儿童中普遍存在。
