Difficulties in language skills, which is a communication tool, can negatively affect the individual in many ways. Providing the mental organization of verbal and non-verbal information obtained from different sources has an important role in language processing (Loeb et al., 1996). All memory skills, especially working memory, have an important place in this mental organization. In addition, language and memory are cognitive skills that are highly related to each other, and together language acquisition; It takes place through the processes of encoding and recalling information in memory. As a matter of fact, language is a tool and code system for coding and storing verbal information. When a child learns a new word or phrase, this information is coded in the memory, stored, and when it is desired to be expressed, it is produced by evaluating its suitability for the context. The issue of which skill is affected by the other in the relationship between language and memory has not yet been clarified. However, when the literature is examined, Van Balkom and Verhoeven’s
(2003) children with Developmental Language Disorder (DDD), a disorder characterized by the inability of an individual to show age-appropriate language skills in language skills, in the presence of normal cognitive skills and without physical or neurological damage such as autism, learning disability, cleft palate, cerebral palsy, and head trauma. It is thought that he may have difficulties in memory processes. Continuity of thought in children with DDD (Türkoğlu et al., 2019), difficulty understanding the grammatical aspect of language and articulation difficulties (Lust, 2006), learning receptive and expressive language /
It is known that they have performance difficulties (Montgomery, 2002), naming skills, learning words, understanding language and using language in a social context (Van Wingerden et al., 2014), syntactic syntax skills (McCauley, 2001). Considering these difficulties
When taken, it is thought that poor vocabulary and naming difficulties are related to the semantic component of the language (Prelock & Hutchins, 2018), while the difficulties they experience in naming some objects they encounter in their daily lives are related to their working memory skills (Lust, 2006). An important role of memory is in learning. Baddeley et al. (1998) reported that short-term memory difficulties may have a negative effect on vocabulary learning in children with DDD. Similarly, Conti-Ramsden et al. (2015) suggested that the lower performance of children with developmental language disorders in learning new information and encoding new information in memory compared to their peers may be due to the difficulties they experience in memory processes. In addition, working memory seems to be related to learning. In the study of Archibald and Gathercole (2006), in which the short-term memory and working memory skills of 20 children with DDD were evaluated, it was reported that children with DDD had difficulties in both memory skills. new knowledge
There are studies suggesting that children with DDD have difficulty in learning basic academic skills such as reading (Bishop & Snowling, 2004) and writing (Mackie & Dockrell, 2004; Graham et al., 2020) due to difficulties in learning. When the literature is examined, according to the findings, memory processes; It consists of three basic steps: acquisition, consolidation and storage (Cocchini et al., 2002). While acquisition means receiving information through the sense organs, reinforcement refers to a series of processes involving the strengthening, stabilization and integration of newly acquired and non-permanent memory traces with long-term memory. Finally, if storage
It refers to the process of creating a long-term record of information to be recalled when needed. Storage is a component related to long-term memory, while acquisition and consolidation are components of both short-term and long-term memory. Working memory, on the other hand, enables the selection of appropriate behaviors in order to encode the stimuli coming from our environment, store them for a short time and use them for their intended purpose (Oberauer et al., 2003). For this reason, it is important to evaluate all memory skills of children with developmental language disorders and to explain their difficulties by associating them with memory skills. In this study, it is aimed to examine the short-term memory, long-term memory and working memory skills, which are involved in the acquisition, consolidation and storage of verbal information, in comparison with their typically developing peers in children with developmental language disorders. In the light of the information obtained later, the place and importance of memory skills in the evaluation, diagnosis and therapy planning of children with developmental language disorders will be discussed.
Method
Research Model
In this study, the relational survey model, one of the general survey models of quantitative research methods, is used.
Participants
All participants were first asked to fill in the general information form. According to the answers given to the questions in the general information form, individuals whose mother tongue was Turkish and who did not have any hearing loss, cognitive and neurodevelopmental disorders were included in the study. There is not necessarily a significant difference in nonverbal intelligence scores between developmental language disorders and typically developing individuals. Therefore, nonverbal intelligence scores of all participants were compared with the Raven Colored Progressive Matrices Test (Raven et al., 1998), and no statistical difference was observed between the scores. Afterwards, the language skills of the participants were tested in the Turkish School Language Development Test.
(TODİL-Topbaş & Güven, 1917), individuals whose language skills were found to be appropriate for their age were classified as the developmental language disorder group, with individuals with typical development (TGG) and those who could not meet their age-appropriate language skills. The sample of the study consists of 36 children aged 5-9 years, 16 of whom have developmental language disorders and 20 of them with typical development. The memory processes of the groups were evaluated with the Verbal Memory Processes Test (SBST) and the First Word Recall subtest of the Working Memory Scale. Tests administered to the participants were isolated from distractions; It was carried out in a classroom environment where only the participant and the practitioner who did the research were present. A single session of approximately 60 minutes was held for data collection.
Argument
When the study findings were examined, it was observed that the children in the FDD and DDD groups had higher scores in the FDD group than the TDD group in all memory tests. The instant memory score gives information about the short-term memory of the individual (Özyürek, 2009). Usta (2016) conducted a study to collect normative data on SBST in 101 FDI children aged 5-9 years.
found that the mean scores were 5,614 and that the instant memory scores increased with age. The fact that this finding was higher than FDI children in the study can be explained by the relatively lower mean age of the participants in the study. In addition, our findings in this study
When the verbal working memory scores are examined, it is seen that the mean score of the FDD group is higher than the group with TDD, but the difference between the mean scores is higher than the instant memory scores. This situation occurs in children with DDD.
This suggests that working memory deficits are more common than short-term memory deficits. There are studies suggesting that short-term memory skills are related to verbal working memory skills (Engle et al., 1999; Conway et al., 2002; Miyake et al., 2001). However, it has been stated that although both memory skills are temporarily stored, verbal working memory is more closely related to cognitive functions than short-term memory, and each of these two interrelated structures has its own structure (Akoğlu, 2011). Verbal working memory is distinguished from short-term memory by not only storing complex information, but also processing and structuring it (Cangöz, 2005). As a matter of fact, Oberauer et al. (2003) stated that verbal working memory skills are responsible for the selection of appropriate behaviors for the purpose of using the coded information after the short-term storage of the coded information, and not only for short-term storage. In studies conducted with children with DDD, it is seen that verbal working memory is generally evaluated with a nonword repetition list (Roy & Chiat, 2004; Edwards & Lahey, 1998; Conti-Ramsden, 2003; Montgomery, 2004; van der Lely & Howard, 1993). It is thought that the limitation in storage capacity due to short-term memory deficits of word repetition tasks may cause a decrease in repetition accuracy. In this study, the verbal working memory performances of the participants were
evaluated by the recall task. In the first word recall task, children are asked to answer whether the sentence they are told is correct in meaning or not, giving true or false answers. Then, they are expected to remember the first words of the sentences they hear and express them in the appropriate order. While there are 2 sentences in the first task, it becomes increasingly difficult and in the last task, 5 sentences must be evaluated correctly or incorrectly and the first words must be remembered. In this study, it is thought that the evaluation of verbal working memory with a relatively more difficult task will increase the reliability of the measurement and the current performance can be seen more clearly.
In the study of Mayringer and Wimmer (2000), it was emphasized that 9-year-old German-speaking dyslexic children showed significant difficulties in tasks that require the use of phonological store, which is a verbal working memory function, in various visual and verbal learning tasks. In addition, it was observed that children had difficulties in learning phonological forms that they had not heard before, and that this difficulty was associated with difficulties in word repetition and rapid naming. Therefore, in this study, it is thought that the fact that children with DDD have lower total learning and highest learning averages, which express the total number of words learned in 10 learning trials, compared to the TGG group, may be due to the difficulties they experience in both immediate memory and verbal working memory tasks.
