Statistical Learning Among Preschoolers With and Without Developmental Language Disorder: Examining Effects of Language Status, Age, and Prior Learning.

PURPOSE

Our goal was to compare statistical learning abilities between preschoolers with developmental language disorder (DLD) and peers with typical development (TD) by assessing their learning of two artificial grammars.

METHOD

Four- and 5-year-olds with and without DLD were compared on their statistical learning ability using two artificial grammars. After learning an grammar, participants learned a relatively more complex grammar with a nonadjacent relationship between and . Participants were tested on their generalization of the grammatical pattern to new sequences with novel elements that conformed to () or violated () the grammars.

RESULTS

Results revealed an interaction between age and language group. Four-year-olds with and without DLD performed equivalently on the and grammar tests, and neither of the 4-year-old groups' accuracy scores exceeded chance. In contrast, among 5-year-olds, TD participants scored significantly higher on tests compared to participants with DLD, but the groups' scores did not differ. Five-year-old participants with DLD did not exceed chance on any test, whereas 5-year-old TD participants' scores exceeded chance on all grammar learning outcomes. Regression analyses indicated that performance positively predicted learning outcomes on the subsequent grammar for TD participants.

CONCLUSION

These results indicate that preschool-age participants with DLD show deficits relative to typical peers in statistical learning, but group differences vary with participant age and type of grammatical structure being tested.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.26487376.