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We know that children with Developmental Language Disorder show a slower learning rate when learning words than their typically developing peers. However, they show a similar ability to retain what they have learned. Yet, longer retention intervals, such as weeks or months after training, are rarely assessed. Furthermore, children’s responses to retention tests are typically coded as correct or incorrect. Thus, we lack information about the phonological specificity at which representations for words are retained and whether this differs across children with and without DLD. We trained 4- to 6-year-old children on nine word-object pairs during daily training sessions until children reached criterion. We assessed changes in the number of words children could retrieve throughout training and coded responses as the percentage of phonetic features correct relative to the target words. Additionally, we tested all children on their ability to retrieve the words one month after training. Children with DLD showed slower learning rates than children with TD. However, children with and without DLD showed similar abilities to retrieve trained words and similarly maintained the phonological specificity of those words.
Funding Source: NIH-NIDCD, NIH-NIGMS
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