Development of Non-linguistic Cognitive Ability in Specific Language Impaired Children

Abstract

We compared the development of linguistic and non-linguistic abilities in children with specific language impairment (SLI) from the point of view of cognitive-neuropsychological structure. The SLI children demonstrated normal abilities in reading aloud and repetition but revealed a disorder in understanding of meaning. Although they show a disorder in understanding of linguistic meaning, their development of non-linguistic meaning is normal. This contrasts with cases of learning disabilitied (LD) children who manifest specific Kanji writing disorder and show cognitive disorders in both linguistic and non-linguistic capacities. These results suggest that linguistic and non-linguistic semantic abilities are prone to develop separately in SLI children.