Saar Virpi, Komulainen Erkki, Levänen Sari
Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Psychology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Brain Center, Division of Neuropsychology, Phoniatrics, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
Child Neuropsychol. 2023 Feb;29(2):213-234. doi: 10.1080/09297049.2022.2077324. Epub 2022 May 20.
Nonverbal deficits are frequently reported in children with developmental language disorder (DLD). In the new diagnostic criteria of DLD, the previous requirement of normal nonverbal performance has been removed and children with below average and even weak nonverbal skills now fit under the DLD definition. However, the significance of the nonverbal cognitive level, and the connection between nonverbal and verbal skills in these children diagnosed according to the new DLD classification is unclear. In the present study, the significance of nonverbal cognitive level on verbal performance was investigated among preschool-aged children with remarkable deficits in language development. Verbal skills were compared between average, below average, and weak nonverbal cognitive level groups. The connection between nonverbal and verbal skills was evaluated with Pearson correlations, and the covariance structure of the subtests used was modeled with Structural Modelling. The connection between nonverbal cognitive level and verbal skills was clear; weaker nonverbal cognitive levels were associated with lower verbal skills. While receptive language skills and verbal short-term-memory (STM) were the most profound weaknesses, relative strengths emerged for each nonverbal cognitive level group in fluid intelligence, especially in nonverbal reasoning tasks without time limits. In addition, fluid intelligence was strongly linked to verbal understanding and reasoning. These results suggest that the relative strength in nonverbal fluid intelligence with specific weaknesses in receptive language, verbal understanding, and verbal STM could be used as basic factors differentiating children with DLD from those with intellectual disability.
语言发育障碍（DLD）儿童经常被报告存在非言语缺陷。在DLD的新诊断标准中，先前对正常非言语表现的要求已被取消，非言语技能低于平均水平甚至较弱的儿童现在符合DLD的定义。然而，这些根据新的DLD分类诊断出的儿童的非言语认知水平的重要性，以及非言语和言语技能之间的联系尚不清楚。在本研究中，我们调查了语言发育明显迟缓的学龄前儿童中，非言语认知水平对言语表现的重要性。我们比较了非言语认知水平处于平均、低于平均和较弱水平组之间的言语技能。我们用Pearson相关性评估了非言语和言语技能之间的联系，并用结构模型对所使用的子测验的协方差结构进行了建模。非言语认知水平和言语技能之间的联系很明显；较弱的非言语认知水平与较低的言语技能相关。虽然接受性语言技能和言语短期记忆（STM）是最明显的弱点，但每个非言语认知水平组在流体智力方面都有相对优势，特别是在没有时间限制的非言语推理任务中。此外，流体智力与言语理解和推理密切相关。这些结果表明，在接受性语言、言语理解和言语STM方面存在特定弱点的情况下，非言语流体智力的相对优势可作为区分DLD儿童和智力残疾儿童的基本因素。
