Nonlinguistic cognitive treatment for primary language impairment.

Abstract

Children with primary or ‘specific’ language impairment (PLI) demonstrate subtle deficits in nonlinguistic cognitive processing skills that may play a causal or contributing role in PLI. Our purpose was to investigate the possibility that short-term treatment of nonlinguistic cognitive processing skills improves language abilities in school-aged children with PLI. Two children with severe PLI participated in a treatment study following a single-subject multiple-baseline design across participants and skill areas. Treatment activities targeted auditory memory and speed of processing for visual information. Results of both repeated dependent measures and pre- and poststandardized language testing indicated that participants made gains in expressive language skills, particularly naming. This preliminary evidence suggests that treatment of nonlinguistic cognitive processing skills may facilitate change in some areas of language skill. Treatment of nonlinguistic processing skills should be further explored as a complement to more traditional language interventions.