Underlying deficits in language-disordered children with central auditory processing difficulties

Abstract

Abstract Phonological working memory and auditory processing skills were investigated in a group of language-disordered children with central auditory processing (CAP) difficulties. Comparisons were made with two groups of control children, one group matched on chronological age and nonverbal intelligence and the other matched on language age. The CAP disordered children showed poorer abilities in nonword repetition and word recall. In agreement with earlier findings in language-disordered children (Gathercole & Baddeley, 1990), the CAP disordered children were sensitive to the phonological similarity and word length of the recall lists. However, contrary to earlier findings, the CAP disordered children in the present study also showed poorer phoneme discrimination skills. These findings may be inconsistent with the notion of one central deficit (poor phonological working memory) in CAP disordered children with a language deficit.