The Role of Attention, Memory, and Executive Functions in the Neuropsychological Assessment of Specific Learning Disorder

Abstract

The evaluation of attention, memory and executive functions in the evaluation of Special Learning Disorder (SLD) provides more detailed information about the areas where children have problems, especially in the information processing model. There are not many studies in the literature on assessing attention, memory and executive functions of children with SLD in Turkey. The aim of this study is to comparison attention, memory process and executive functions between group with SLD and comparison group. The sample of the study consists of 45 children with SLD and 33 healthy children. SLD Clinical Observation Battery (SLD-CO Battery), California Verbal Learning Test- Children Version, Stroop Test TBAG Form and Wisconsin Test used for all groups in the study. Mann Whitney U test analysis were used to compare scores of the two groups and Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to reveal the relationships between the variables. The results of the analysis assessed and determined significant differences between subscores of the tests. It was observed that there was a significant difference between the two groups, especially in the sub-dimension of the Stroop test that evaluates reading speed, but no significant difference was found in terms of attention assessment. In California Verbal Learning Test’s subscores which especially assesses short term memory, the children with SLD had significantly lower scores from comparison group. In Wisconsin test which assessed executive function of children in this study, the scores shown that the comparison group had better performance than children with SLD. As a result, it has been revealed that the performance of children diagnosed with SLD is much lower in terms of attention, memory and executive functions compared to children with normal development. Findings suggest that it may be beneficial to focus especially on attention, memory and executive functions in children diagnosed with SLD.