Visuospatial immediate memory in specific language impairment

Purpose: Investigations of the cognitive processes underlying specific language impairment (SLI) have implicated deficits in verbal short-term and working memory and in particular the storage and processing of phonological information. This study investigated short-term and working memory for visuospatial material for a group of children with SLI, to test whether the verbal memory impairments already established extend to the visuospatial domain. Method: Fifteen children with SLI and control groups of children matched on chronological age and language age completed tests of visuospatial short-term and working memory. Results: The SLI group performed comparably with age-matched control children on all measures and at a higher level than the language-age control group on several measures. Conclusions: The visuospatial short-term and working memory abilities were at age-appropriate levels in this SLI group. This contrasts markedly with their impairments on tests of verbal short-term and working memory.