Visuospatial working memory in specific language impairment: a meta-analysis.
Kids labeled with specific language impairment also lag in visual working memory, so test both domains before you plan therapy.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Brigitte and her team pooled 21 smaller studies. All compared kids with specific language impairment (SLI) to typically developing peers.
They looked at two parts of visuospatial working memory: storage (holding a picture in mind) and central executive (juggling that picture while doing something else).
What they found
Kids with SLI scored about half a standard deviation lower on storage tasks. The gap grew to two-thirds on executive tasks.
In plain numbers, the average child with SLI sat at the 30th percentile compared with same-age peers.
How this fits with other research
von Rhein et al. (2015) saw similar medium-sized visuospatial deficits in teens after heart surgery. Both studies flag the same ROCFT-style tasks as sensitive.
Garwood et al. (2021) found the opposite pattern in Williams syndrome: big verbal strength, big spatial weakness. Together the papers show visuospatial memory is a separate data point you need to check before blaming "just language" problems.
Goldstein et al. (1991) once thought language-impaired kids only struggled with sequential sounds. Brigitte’s meta proves the trouble crosses into visual space, updating that young learners view.
Why it matters
If you screen only verbal memory, you may miss half the problem. Add a quick visuospatial span task like the Corsi blocks or ROCFT copy score. Low scores there tell you to widen intervention targets—think visual schedules, spatial organizers, and reduced table clutter—before you call the issue "language only."
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Drop a Corsi block-tapping test into your next SLI assessment battery and note the span score alongside verbal results.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
We conducted a meta-analysis of the data from studies comparing visuospatial working memory (WM) in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing (TD) children. The effect sizes of 21 studies (including 32 visuospatial storage tasks and 9 visuospatial central executive (CE) tasks) were identified via computerized database searches and the reference sections of the identified studies. Meta-analyses and moderator analyses were conducted to examine the magnitude of the differences in visuospatial storage and CE, and their relation to the inclusion criteria used for SLI and the age of the children. The results showed significant effect sizes for visuospatial storage (d=0.49) and visuospatial CE (d=0.63), indicating deficits in both components of visuospatial WM in children with SLI. The moderator analyses showed that greater impairment in visuospatial storage was associated with more pervasive language impairment, whereas age was not significant associated with visuospatial WM. The finding of deficits in visuospatial WM suggests domain-general impairments in children with SLI. It raises questions about the language-specificity of a diagnosis of SLI. Careful attention should thus be paid to both verbal and visuospatial WM in clinical practice, and especially in those children with pervasive language impairments.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2013 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2013.05.014