Nonverbal Working Memory Research Articles

Exploring cognitive predictors of language in children with developmental language disorder: The role of nonverbal IQ, working memory, implicit statistical learning, and speed of automatization.

Exploring cognitive predictors of language in children with developmental language disorder: The role of nonverbal IQ, working memory, implicit statistical learning, and speed of automatization.

Associations of Prenatal Socioeconomic Status and Childhood Working Memory: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach.

To determine if prenatal socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with childhood working memory (WM), we constructed a more precise, integrative measure of WM using variables from multiple tasks that may provide a more representative measure of WM. We used data from a prospective birth cohort study in Mexico City, Mexico, with N = 515 children aged 6-9 years. Prenatal SES was measured using the Mexican Association of Marketing Research and Public Opinion Agencies (AMAI) index. We created a latent variable for nonverbal working memory using multiple tasks (Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery spatial working memory, operant chamber Delayed Match to Sample and Incremental Repeated Acquisition). Structural equation models were used to assess associations between prenatal SES and nonverbal working memory, adjusting for child demographics (e.g., age and sex), prenatal exposures (e.g., exposures to lead, arsenic, and secondhand smoke), and family (current SES, maternal IQ) variables. Children had a mean age of 6.6 years [SD 0.6], and 50.5% were boys. Using confirmatory factor analysis, we constructed a latent variable of nonverbal working memory, which was measurement invariant across child sex. Prenatal SES was associated with childhood nonverbal working memory (standardized factor loading = 0.17; p = 0.004). These associations were modified by child sex. Higher prenatal SES was significantly associated with higher childhood WM in females (standardized factor loading = 0.26; p = 0.002), but not in males. Prenatal socioeconomic status is a predictor of childhood working memory, but it may be a stronger predictor for girls compared with for boys.

Non-Verbal Working Memory in Post-Stroke Motor Aphasia: A Pilot Study Using the Tactual Span.

Background: Working memory (WM) impairment is a potential consequence of motor aphasia resulting from left-hemisphere ischemic stroke. While verbal WM has been studied extensively in this disorder, research regarding non-verbal modalities remains limited, particularly visuospatial WM, tactile WM, and the relationship between them. Additionally, language impairments limit the ability to assess WM in aphasia patients, highlighting the necessity of non-verbal diagnostic tools in clinical practice. The current study's objectives were to compare tactile and visuospatial WM in patients with post-stroke motor aphasia and to validate the one-hand version of the Tactual Span task as a clinical measure of WM. Methods: A total of 29 participants-14 with post-stroke motor aphasia and 15 healthy controls-completed a battery of cognitive tests, including the Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices Test, the Visuospatial Span, the Tactual Span, and a visual 1-Back task. Results: There was significantly lower performance across all WM tasks in the aphasia group compared to the controls. Additionally, the Tactual Span successfully discriminated between patients and controls, showing sensitivity estimates of 92.9% and a specificity of 66.7%, with a cut-off score of 4.5 (AUC = 0.91), for the forward stage. The backward stage revealed a sensitivity of 71.4% and a specificity of 73.3%, with a cut-off score of 3.5 (AUC = 0.83). Conclusions: The findings may suggest that non-verbal WM impairment in post-stroke aphasia affects both visuospatial and tactile modalities similarly. Furthermore, the Tactual Span appears to be sensitive to left-hemisphere stroke damage, suggesting its potential utility as a clinical tool for WM assessment in patients with motor aphasia.

The Link Between the Applied Visual Strategy When Copying the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure and the Language Abilities in Children with Specific Language Impairment.

Background/Objectives: Although specific language impairment (SLI) was thought to be a language impairment, recent studies suggest that it is also associated with domain-general and nonverbal deficits such as deficits in nonverbal working memory, visual short-term memory, executive functions, etc. This study aimed to examine if applied visual strategy when copying the Rey-Osterrieth complex figure (ROCF) correlates with language abilities in children with SLI. Methods: The sample consisted of 37 children diagnosed with SLI, divided into two groups based on the strategy used when copying ROCF. We used ROCF to assess perceptual organization and planning, and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Boston Naming Test, Token Test, Grammatical Judgment, The Children's Grammar, and Global Articulation Test for language measurement. Univariate ANOVA was used for statistical analysis. Results: The results indicate that children who used a more mature strategy when copying ROCF achieved better results on tests used to assess grammar and articulation status. Conclusions: These results support the conclusion that there are neurocognitive mechanisms underlying both grammatical and visuospatial deficits. The obtained results suggest the importance of examining visual and visuospatial functions in children with SLI and the need for more comprehensive treatment of those children.

Relationships between executive functions and vocabulary knowledge in Spanish-speaking children with and without developmental language disorder.

Relationships between executive functions and vocabulary knowledge in Spanish-speaking children with and without developmental language disorder.

Differences in Language Impairment Between Developmental Language Disorder and Autism: Insights From Mandarin ba and bei Constructions

Background and aimsBoth developmental language disorder (DLD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are characterized by language and communication deficits, and the extent to which commonalities in syntactic difficulties are shared between DLD and autism plus language impairment (ALI), a subtype of ASD, is a matter of debate. Thus, this study aims to further explore the extent of overlapping vulnerabilities in the syntactic profiles of children with DLD and ALI.MethodWe investigated the comprehension and production of two complex syntactic structures, ba constructions and bei constructions in Mandarin by 18 children with DLD (mean age = 5;03) and 17 children with ALI (mean age = 5;05), compared to their 24 typically developing peers matched on chronological age.ResultsThe results show that children with DLD and children with ALI differ in the errors committed when producing these two constructions. Specifically, children with DLD are prone to produce ungrammatical responses, use simple sentences, and misuse ba/bei constructions, while children with ALI produce pragmatically inappropriate responses which are scarce in the productions of children with DLD. In addition, the comprehension and production of bei constructions by children with DLD were significantly correlated with their nonverbal working memory (NVWM), while no such correlation was found in the ALI group. Finally, while ba and bei constructions yield higher comprehension than production in the DLD group, only ba constructions showed this pattern in the ALI group.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that children with DLD and children with ALI do not constitute a continuum of the same language disorder despite their superficial resemblance on performance accuracy.ImplicationsThis study highlights the need for tailored interventions to enhance mastery of ba and bei constructions: for children with DLD, focus on explicit instruction in complex syntax and NVWM training; for children with ALI, emphasize syntactic and pragmatic language development through context-rich activities integrating complex syntax and contextual cues.

Longitudinal development of cognition and vocabulary knowledge in young second language learners in a bilingual programme.

Despite the importance of cognitive development for vocabulary acquisition, limited attention has been given to the impacts of cognitive factors on this phenomenon from a longitudinal perspective. This study evaluates the longitudinal development of such factors (i.e. metacognitive knowledge, working memory, and non-verbal intelligence) and L2 vocabulary knowledge growth in 210 young second language learners enrolled in a bilingual programme in China. Results supported individual differences in the initial level and the growth rate of learners' cognitive development and vocabulary knowledge growth: a higher starting level of cognitive development correlated with a higher level of vocabulary knowledge and a faster rate of vocabulary knowledge growth. Findings revealed particularly significant predictive role of metacognitive knowledge on vocabulary knowledge, followed by non-verbal intelligence and working memory. Relevant implications were discussed based on the findings.

Cross- and Within-Language Associations Between Phonological, Lexical, and Grammatical Domains in Mandarin-English Bilingual Preschoolers in Singapore.

This study aims to examine the associations of phonological, lexical, and grammatical skills within and between languages in Mandarin-English bilingual preschoolers. Sixty-three Singaporean Mandarin-English bilingual children aged 3-5 years were assessed for articulation, receptive vocabulary, and receptive grammar using standardized instruments in English and compatible tools in Mandarin. Regression analyses were performed on each language outcome, with other language variables as predictors, controlling for age, nonverbal working memory, and home language environment. Phonological and grammatical skills in one language predicted corresponding skills in the other. Phonemes shared across languages showed higher accuracy rates compared to unshared phonemes, while accuracy varied across grammatical structures. Vocabulary did not correlate between languages. It was influenced by household language distribution, with Mandarin vocabulary also correlating with nonverbal working memory. Mandarin grammar positively correlated with the number of native Mandarin speakers at home. Within each language, phonological skills were predicted by vocabulary, while vocabulary and grammar were reciprocally predictive. Cross-language, cross-domain relationships were weak. This study shows domain-specific cross-language associations and language-specific cross-domain associations in Mandarin-English bilingual children, indicating both interdependent and autonomous development. Our findings call for approaches that value the child's full linguistic repertoire and utilize interconnectedness between languages and language domains to enhance bi/multilingual competence. They also highlight the importance of assessing each of the child's languages and considering individual bilingual profiles in research on bilingual language development. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.28200128.

Screening for Depression and Anxiety Using a Nonverbal Working Memory Task in a Sample of Older Brazilians: Observational Study of Preliminary Artificial Intelligence Model Transferability.

Anxiety and depression represent prevalent yet frequently undetected mental health concerns within the older population. The challenge of identifying these conditions presents an opportunity for artificial intelligence (AI)-driven, remotely available, tools capable of screening and monitoring mental health. A critical criterion for such tools is their cultural adaptability to ensure effectiveness across diverse populations. This study aims to illustrate the preliminary transferability of two established AI models designed to detect high depression and anxiety symptom scores. The models were initially trained on data from a nonverbal working memory game (1- and 2-back tasks) in a dataset by thymia, a company that develops AI solutions for mental health and well-being assessments, encompassing over 6000 participants from the United Kingdom, United States, Mexico, Spain, and Indonesia. We seek to validate the models' performance by applying it to a new dataset comprising older Brazilian adults, thereby exploring its transferability and generalizability across different demographics and cultures. A total of 69 Brazilian participants aged 51-92 years old were recruited with the help of Laços Saúde, a company specializing in nurse-led, holistic home care. Participants received a link to the thymia dashboard every Monday and Thursday for 6 months. The dashboard had a set of activities assigned to them that would take 10-15 minutes to complete, which included a 5-minute game with two levels of the n-back tasks. Two Random Forest models trained on thymia data to classify depression and anxiety based on thresholds defined by scores of the Patient Health Questionnaire (8 items) (PHQ-8) ≥10 and those of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Assessment (7 items) (GAD-7) ≥10, respectively, were subsequently tested on the Laços Saúde patient cohort. The depression classification model exhibited robust performance, achieving an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.78, a specificity of 0.69, and a sensitivity of 0.72. The anxiety classification model showed an initial AUC of 0.63, with a specificity of 0.58 and a sensitivity of 0.64. This performance surpassed a benchmark model using only age and gender, which had AUCs of 0.47 for PHQ-8 and 0.53 for GAD-7. After recomputing the AUC scores on a cross-sectional subset of the data (the first n-back game session), we found AUCs of 0.79 for PHQ-8 and 0.76 for GAD-7. This study successfully demonstrates the preliminary transferability of two AI models trained on a nonverbal working memory task, one for depression and the other for anxiety classification, to a novel sample of older Brazilian adults. Future research could seek to replicate these findings in larger samples and other cultural contexts.

Primary progressive aphasia in Italian and English: a cross‐linguistic cohort study

Abstract BackgroundPrimary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) is a neurodegenerative disorder primarily affecting language abilities, with clinical variants (nonfluent/agrammatic variant [nfvPPA], semantic variant [svPPA], logopenic variant [lvPPA], and mixed‐PPA [mPPA]) categorized based on linguistic features. This study aims to compare PPA cohorts of native speakers of two different languages: English (an analytic language with deep orthography) and Italian (a synthetic language with shallow orthography).MethodsWe considered 166 English participants (70 nfvPPA, 45 svPPA, 42 lvPPA, 9 mPPA) and 106 Italian participants (14 nfvPPA, 20 svPPA, 42 lvPPA, 31 mPPA). Starting from the neuropsychological battery used to assess patients, we extracted one test for each cognitive and linguistic function that can be compared between cohorts. Comparisons were adjusted for symptom duration and Mini‐mental State Examination scores.ResultsThe English cohort included a higher proportion of nfvPPA patients (42% vs. 13%, p<0.001), while the Italian cohort showed higher proportions of lvPPA (25% vs. 38%, p = 0.019) and mPPA (5% vs. 29%, p<0.001). English nfvPPA patients were more frequently impaired in single‐word comprehension (60% vs. 8%, p = 0.013), while Italian nfvPPA patients exhibited more agrammatism (46% vs. 93%, p = 0.015). English svPPA had a higher proportion of surface dyslexia (68% vs. 30%, p = 0.046) and spelling impairment (38% vs. 10%, p = 0.021). English lvPPA had broader impairments, including single‐word comprehension (89% vs. 29%, p<0.001), repetition of words (61% vs. 26%, p = 0.03), nonverbal working memory (69% vs. 36%, p = 0.005), and visuospatial perception (89% vs. 25%, p<0.001).ConclusionsThis study reveals linguistic and cognitive distinctions between English and Italian PPA cohorts, emphasizing the impact of language‐specific characteristics on symptomatology. Cultural and linguistic nuances should be considered in PPA diagnosis and management, calling for more tailored assessments and criteria.

Focus on Executive Functions. Part 3: Emotion Regulation, Self-Motivation, and Planning/Problem-Solving

The third in a 3-part series on executive functions. This series for adults with ADHD discusses the 7 executive functions that foster self-control—the abilities we use to monitor our own behavior to attain our goals. —Excerpted from Taking Charge of Adult ADHD (2nd ed.), by Russell A. Barkley with Christine M. Benton. Part 1: Self-awareness (the mind's mirror) and inhibition (the mind's brakes). Part 2: Nonverbal and verbal working memory (the mind’s eye and the mind’s voice). Part 3: Emotion regulation (the mind’s heart), self-motivation (the mind’s fuel tank), and planning/problem-solving (the mind’s playground).

Focus on Executive Functions. Part 2: Nonverbal and Verbal Working Memory

The second in a 3-part series on executive functions. This series for adults with ADHD discusses the 7 executive functions that foster self-control—the abilities we use to monitor our own behavior to attain our goals. —Excerpted from Taking Charge of Adult ADHD (2nd ed.), by Russell A. Barkley with Christine M. Benton. Part 1: Self-awareness (the mind's mirror) and inhibition (the mind's brakes). Part 2: Nonverbal and verbal working memory (the mind’s eye and the mind’s voice). Part 3: Emotion regulation (the mind’s heart), self-motivation (the mind’s fuel tank), and planning/problem-solving (the mind’s playground).

Time reference in French-speaking people with fluent and non-fluent aphasia (part I): tense dissociations, task effects and cognitive predictors

ABSTRACT Background People with fluent and non-fluent aphasia frequently have time reference deficits, which could be more pronounced for the past than for the present and future tenses. However, this performance pattern (past < non-past) is not consensual and might depend on the type of task used. Furthermore, the influence of cognitive processes on time reference deficits remains little explored, as does the origin of these difficulties (e.g. pre-phonological, morpho-phonological). Aims The primary aims of the study were (1) to identify time reference deficits and (2) dissociations between tenses in French speakers with fluent and non-fluent aphasia and (3) to specify the effect of tasks on performance and tense dissociations. Secondly, our study also aimed to determine whether time reference deficits were (4) influenced by cognitive functions and (5) explained by pre-phonological or morpho-phonological deficits. Methods & procedures Twenty-one French-speaking participants with fluent and non-fluent aphasia and 21 matched control subjects performed three tasks assessing time reference (verb inflection production, verb inflection selection, and adverb selection) and five neuropsychological tests (verbal and non-verbal working memory, inhibition, flexibility, and temporality). Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted. Outcomes & results Participants with fluent and non-fluent aphasia had worse performances than controls on the three time-reference tasks. The performance of the participants with fluent and non-fluent aphasia was quantitatively similar but qualitatively different on the verb inflection production task (i.e. different error types). A main task effect was also found: the verb inflection production task was the only one to show worse performances in the past than in the present and future. Regarding cognitive predictors, verbal working memory and temporality were linked to the three tasks assessing time reference. In contrast, non-verbal working memory was associated only with the two selection tasks, possibly related to the mental timeline. Finally, task analysis suggested a pre-phonological (encoding of diacritic features deficit) rather than a morpho-phonological origin. Conclusions Our study is the first to replicate time reference deficit in French speakers with aphasia. It suggests that the type of task might influence the performance profiles observed and help to shed light on the origin of the difficulties. Cognitive functions that have rarely been investigated before may also influence performance. These results have important clinical implications by questioning the tasks used to assess time reference. They also underline the importance of identifying the origin of difficulties in proposing targeted treatment.

Focus on Executive Functions. Part 1: Self-Awareness and Inhibition

The first in a 3-part series on executive functions. This series for adults with ADHD discusses the 7 executive functions that foster self-control—the abilities we use to monitor our own behavior to attain our goals. —Excerpted from Taking Charge of Adult ADHD (2nd ed.), by Russell A. Barkley with Christine M. Benton. Part 1: Self-awareness (the mind's mirror) and inhibition (the mind's brakes). Part 2: Nonverbal and verbal working memory (the mind’s eye and the mind’s voice). Part 3: Emotion regulation (the mind’s heart), self-motivation (the mind’s fuel tank), and planning/problem-solving (the mind’s playground).

The Relationship between Story Comprehension, Story Grammar Production, and Executive Function in Preschool-Age Korean-English Bilingual Children with and without Vocabulary Delay

Objectives: This study investigated the relationship between story comprehension and story grammar abilities, as well as executive function in preschool Korean-English bilingual children with vocabulary delay (VD) compared to typically developing (TD) children and examined predictors of their narrative abilities. Methods: A total of 30 children (13 children with VD, 17 TD children) aged from 4-6 years participated in the study. Children performed non-word repetition (NWR) and word list recall for verbal working memory, matrix for non-verbal working memory, fruit stroop for inhibition, and Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) for shifting. They also performed story comprehension and story grammar production tasks in both languages to assess their narrative abilities. For data analyses, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and stepwise multiple regression were conducted. Results: The VD group showed significantly lower performance in working memory, inhibition, shifting tasks. Moreover, VD group had significantly lower performance in story comprehension and story grammar production tasks in both languages. In the TD group, Korean story comprehension performance was correlated with English story comprehension, Korean story grammar production, English story grammar production performances. On the other hand, in the VD group, only Korean story comprehension showed a significant correlation with Korean story grammar production performance. Lastly, matrix significantly predicted English story comprehension abilities and word list recall significantly predicted Korean story grammar production abilities in the TD group. Conclusion: By examining the relationship between children’s ability to understand stories, produce story grammar and sub-factors of executive function, we can improve the narrative education and intervention for bilingual children’s literacy and academic achievement in the future.

How Hearing Loss and Cochlear Implantation Affect Verbal Working Memory: Evidence From Adolescents.

Verbal working memory is poorer for children with hearing loss than for peers with normal hearing (NH), even with cochlear implantation and early intervention. Poor verbal working memory can affect academic performance, especially in higher grades, making this deficit a significant problem. This study examined the stability of verbal working memory across middle childhood, tested working memory in adolescents with NH or cochlear implants (CIs), explored whether signal enhancement can improve verbal working memory, and tested two hypotheses proposed to explain the poor verbal working memory of children with hearing loss: (a) Diminished auditory experience directly affects executive functions, including working memory; (b) degraded auditory inputs inhibit children's abilities to recover the phonological structure needed for encoding verbal material into storage. Fourteen-year-olds served as subjects: 55 with NH; 52 with CIs. Immediate serial recall tasks were used to assess working memory. Stimuli consisted of nonverbal, spatial stimuli and four kinds of verbal, acoustic stimuli: nonrhyming and rhyming words, and nonrhyming words with two kinds of signal enhancement: audiovisual and indexical. Analyses examined (a) stability of verbal working memory across middle childhood, (b) differences in verbal and nonverbal working memory, (c) effects of signal enhancement on recall, (d) phonological processing abilities, and (e) source of the diminished verbal working memory in adolescents with cochlear implants. Verbal working memory remained stable across middle childhood. Adolescents across groups performed similarly for nonverbal stimuli, but those with CIs displayed poorer recall accuracy for verbal stimuli; signal enhancement did not improve recall. Poor phonological sensitivity largely accounted for the group effect. The central executive for working memory is not affected by hearing loss or cochlear implantation. Instead, the phonological deficit faced by adolescents with CIs denigrates the representation in storage and augmenting the signal does not help.

Longitudinal predictors of reading and arithmetic at different attainment levels

Reading and arithmetic are distinct academic skills that share similarities in skill acquisition and use. Previous research investigated the cognitive basis of associations and dissociations between reading and arithmetic by using either subtyping or dimensional approaches. In the current study, we aim to bridge the gap between these two approaches by investigating common and distinct predictors of reading and arithmetic at different performance levels with quantile regression models. This allowed us to look more closely at the lower tail of the ability distributions, and to test whether predictions for children with low reading and arithmetic fluency differed from the typical performance range. We analyzed longitudinal data of 357 children speaking English or German. Outcome variables were reading and arithmetic fluency assessed at the end of Grade 1, 2, and 3. Predictors were assessed in Grade 1. Results confirmed nonverbal IQ and working memory as domain-general predictors of reading and arithmetic. The association of reading and arithmetic was mainly explained by nonverbal IQ, phonological awareness, RAN and multi-digit transcoding. Across grades and performance levels, phonological awareness and RAN made a specific contribution to reading. Magnitude processing and multi-digit transcoding were specific predictors of arithmetic. Counting also made a specific prediction to arithmetic in Grade 3, but only in the low performance range. Our findings indicate partly distinct underlying cognitive mechanisms for reading and arithmetic. Shared predictors are involved in retrieval efficiency, language processing and cross-format integration. These results have important implications, as they suggest that most predictors are equally relevant for children with low, typical or even excellent reading and arithmetic fluency.

Delayed auditory experience results in past tense production difficulties and working memory deficits in children with cochlear implants: A comparison with children with developmental language disorder

Delayed auditory experience results in past tense production difficulties and working memory deficits in children with cochlear implants: A comparison with children with developmental language disorder

Language Analytic Ability, Print Exposure, Memory and Comprehension of Complex Syntax by Adult Native Speakers.

Nativist theories of language development assume that all native speakers of a particular language ultimately converge on (more or less) the same grammar, and argue that this is only possible because they are born with a genetic blueprint for language. However, a number of recent studies have found that there are, in fact, considerable individual differences in adult native speakers' grammatical attainment. In this study, we examine some possible reasons for these differences. We examine both learner internal cognitive factors (implicit and explicit memory for sequences, non-verbal working memory, and language analytic ability) as well as an experiential factor (print exposure). In contrast to many earlier studies which focused on the temporal aspects of language processing, we are interested in the extent to which individuals are able to use grammatical cues to extract meaning from complex sentences. To minimize the effect of performance factors, sentences remained on screen while participants responded to comprehension questions (thus easing working memory load) and participants were given as much time as they needed to respond. Our findings revealed large effects of language analytic ability and print exposure, and a much smaller effect of implicit learning. While the effect of implicit learning fits in well with current theories of language acquisition and processing, the first two findings do not. The strong relationship between print exposure and comprehension suggests that the ability to process complex syntax may depend on a particular type of language experience which is not available to all speakers. Finally, the effect of language analytic ability challenges the wide-held conviction that the ability to identify and explicitly reason about linguistic patterns is only relevant in adult second language learning.

Angažovanje u sportu i kognitivne sposobnosti dece - analiza egzekutivnih funkcija

Studies examining the correlation between children's participation in sports activities and their executive functions (EFs) are relatively scarce, especially those that control the impact of participants' intelligence. This research aimed to compare the EFs of children engaged in sports with those of their non-athletic peers, while controlling the impact of intelligence. Additionally, it compared the EFs of children participating in open skills sports (OSS) with those practicing closed skills sports (CSS). The sample included 83 participants (53% girls), aged 9-11 years, of whom 40 engaged in sports during their leisure time. Intelligence was evaluated using Raven's Progressive Matrices, while working memory was assessed using tasks such as Digit Span Backward and Figure Span Backward. Inhibitory control was measured using the Dodrill's Stroop Test and the Go/No-Go task, while cognitive flexibility was evaluated with the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. Planning skills were assessed using the Twenty Questions Task and the Tower of London. The results revealed that children engaged in sports achieved better outcomes only in nonverbal working memory compared to the non-athletes. Involvement in OSS, rather than CSS, is associated with superior performance in nonverbal working memory. The findings suggest that engaging in cognitively stimulating physical activities holds potential benefits for the cognitive development of typically developing children. The observed relationship between sports activities and working memory further implies potential benefits for children with neurodevelopmental disorders. This underscores the necessity for additional research aimed at exploring specific mechanisms and adapting interventions to foster cognitive development in this group of children.