Language: Learning Impairments

Abstract

This article summarizes what is known about language-learning impairments in a group of children who have language disorders in the absence of any obvious etiology, such as brain injury, hearing impairments, intellectual limitations, or psychosocial impairments. Prevalence of this disorder (referred to as specific language impairment (SLI) in the research literature) is approximately 7% of school-aged children, with a female-to-male ratio of 1:1.1. Both genetic and environmental factors are important etiological variables in SLI. Structural neuroimaging, functional magnetic resonance imaging, single-photon emission computed tomography, and event-related potential studies suggest atypical brain organization and patterns of asymmetry of language cortex and cortical dysplasia in these children and their family members. Auditory event-related potentials also indicate slower processing at higher cognitive levels and abnormalities in later states of auditory processing in SLI. Research to date has focused on determining whether SLI is a primary deficit in an independent grammar module or secondary to impairments in general-purpose cognitive mechanisms. Evidence suggests that general learning mechanisms involved in implicit learning are impaired in children with SLI.