Clinical practices in Swedish speech-language pathology for children with (developmental) language disorder.

In Sweden, treatment for children with (developmental) language disorder ((D)LD) is traditionally carried out at a speech-language pathology (SLP) clinic, and based on formal language tests, which may not entirely represent the child's everyday language and communication skills. SLP services that include video recordings have shown positive outcomes in terms of providing information about children's linguistic and communicative abilities in everyday life, but little is known about the use of video in clinical practice. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate how Swedish SLPs link their clinical practices (assessment, treatment, and evaluation of treatment outcome) to the everyday language and communication abilities of children with (D)LD. A further aim is to explore SLPs' utilisation of video recordings as a part of their clinical practices with the target group. A web-based questionnaire was distributed to SLPs in Sweden, who work with children with (D)LD. Results demonstrate that Swedish SLPs perceive that their intervention is in alignment with children's everyday language and communication needs to a fairly high degree. However, an exception is assessment, which is considered to have a weaker alignment with children's everyday communication abilities. The use of video recordings for clinical purposes is very limited. It is suggested here that incorporating video recordings from children's everyday life would be an easy and time-efficient way to strengthen the ecological validity of SLP practices for children with (D)LD.

Swedish speech and language pathologists reflect on how their clinical practises align to everyday language and communication skills of children with developmental language disorder.

This study aims to extend current knowledge about the possibilities and challenges encountered by Swedish speech and language pathologists (SLPs) in targeting everyday language and communication in children with developmental language disorder (DLD). To explore this matter, unstructured focus groups were conducted where 15 SLPs, working with children with DLD, shared their views on the alignment between their clinical practices and children's everyday lives. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data, which resulted in five themes: It's everyday life that matters; As an SLP, you're not a part of the child's everyday life; How do we merge the different worlds?; Resources at home vary, and The employer sets the framework for clinical practices. The SLPs stressed the importance of targeting everyday skills and needs, but they experienced themselves as being detached from the children's daily context. Collaboration with caregivers and (pre)school staff was emphasised; however, the resources and capacity of the caregivers and staff varied, and this was experienced as a challenge for providing the most appropriate care. Some children and their families were situated in a multifaceted context and needed more extensive care, and this group was described as increasing. However, the services that the SLPs were able to offer varied and were largely regulated by organisational constraints. Individualised services are crucial for ensuring a positive development for children with DLD and for empowering caregivers to be effective collaborative partners in intervention. Therefore, it is essential for SLPs to have the time and resources to ensure high-quality care.

Production of relative clauses in Cantonese-speaking children with and without Developmental Language Disorder.

Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) has been explained as either a deficit deriving from an abstract representational deficit or as emerging from difficulties in acquiring and coordinating multiple interacting cues guiding learning. These competing explanations are often difficult to decide between when tested on European languages. This paper reports an experimental study of relative clause (RC) production in Cantonese-speaking children with and without DLD, which enabled us to test multiple developmental predictions derived from one prominent theory - emergentism. Children with DLD (N = 22; aged 6;6-9;7) were compared with age-matched typically-developing peers (N = 23) and language-matched, typically-developing children (N = 21; aged 4;7-7;6) on a sentence repetition task. Results showed that children's production across multiple RC types was influenced by structural frequency, general semantic complexity, and the linear order of constituents, with the DLD group performing worse than their age-matched and language-matched peers. The results are consistent with the emergentist explanation of DLD.

Language and reading in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and comorbid attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder + developmental language disorder.

Background: The current study sought to examine whether psycholinguistic assessments could discriminate children and adolescents with developmental language disorder (DLD) from those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; combined or inattentive subtype) and comorbid DLD + ADHD. Methods: The Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Screening Test (CELFST; Wiig et al., 2013), the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (nonword repetition subtest; Wagner et al., 2013), and the Test of Word Reading Efficiency (sight word and phonemic decoding subtests; Torgesen et al., 2012) were examined in 441 children and adolescents between 6 and 16 years of age. Results: The presence of a language disorder (with or without ADHD) predicted poor performance across tasks. Children and adolescents with ADHD (combined vs. inattentive) only significantly differed in sight word reading, in favor of those with combined type. Measures of reading efficiency could distinguish between the two types of ADHD, but not between other groups. Interestingly, scores on the standard language screener were no worse for children with ADHD + DLD than children with DLD only. Conclusions: The combination of comorbid ADHD + DLD did not appear to be associated with lower language abilities, sight word reading, or phonemic decoding relative to DLD alone. Reading efficiency was effective in discriminating between ADHD subtypes. These findings offer valuable insights into differential diagnosis and the identification of comorbidity.

Cognitive vs. Linguistic Training in Children with Developmental Language Disorder: Exploring Their Effectiveness on Verbal Short-Term Memory and Verbal Working Memory.

The present study explores comparatively the effectiveness of a cognitive (verbal short-term memory (vSTM), verbal working memory (vWM)) and of a linguistic training (10-week duration each) in the diffusion of gains in cognitive abilities (vSTM and vWM) of in school-aged Greek-speaking children with developmental language disorder (DLD). To this purpose, two computerized training programs i.e., a linguistic and a cognitive one, were developed and applied to three groups (A, B, and C) of children with DLD (N = 49, in total). There were three assessments with two vSTM tasks (non-word repetition and forward digit span) and a vWM task (backward digit span): pre-therapeutically (time 1), where no significant between-group differences were found, post-therapeutically I (time 2), and post-therapeutically II (time 3) and two training phases. In phase Ι, group A received meta-syntactic training, whereas group B vSTM/vWM training and group C received no training. In phase ΙΙ, a reversal of treatment was performed for groups A and B: group A received vSTM/vWM while group B meta-syntactic training. Again, group C received no training. Overall, the results indicated a significant performance improvement for the treatment groups and revealed beneficial far-transfer effects as language therapy can affect vSTM and vWM in addition to direct and near transfer effects. In addition, the intervention type order affected performance as follows: first, better performance on the vSTM task (non-word repetition) was shown when the linguistic treatment was delivered first; second, better performance on the vWM in Time 2 and Time 3 was shown by group B, for which the cognitive treatment was delivered first. Concluding, not only intervention type but also intervention type order can affect performance in DLD.

Beyond Language Scores: How Language Exposure Informs Assessment of Nonword Repetition, Vocabulary and Narrative Macrostructure in Bilingual Turkish/Swedish Children with and without Developmental Language Disorder.

As in many other countries, baseline data concerning the linguistic development of bilingual children in Sweden are lacking, and suitable methods for identifying developmental language disorder (DLD) in bilinguals are lacking as well. This study presents reference data from 108 typically developing (TD) Turkish/Swedish-speaking children aged 4;0-8;1, for a range of language tasks developed specifically for the assessment of bilinguals (LITMUS test battery, COST Action IS0804). We report on different types of nonword repetition (NWR) tasks (language-specific and language-independent), receptive and expressive vocabulary (Cross-Linguistic Lexical Tasks, CLTs), and narrative macrostructure comprehension and production (Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives, MAIN) in Turkish, the children's home language, and in Swedish, the language of schooling and society. Performance was investigated in relation to age, language exposure, type of task, and (for NWR and narratives) vocabulary size. There was a positive development with age for all tasks, but effects of language exposure and vocabulary size differed between tasks. Six bilingual Turkish/Swedish children with DLD were individually compared to the TD children. TD/DLD performance overlapped substantially, particularly for NWR, and more so for the production than the comprehension tasks. Surprisingly, the discriminatory potential was poor for both language-specific and language-independent NWR. DLD case studies underscored the importance of interpreting language scores in relation to exposure history, and the need for an increased emphasis on functional language skills as reported by parents and teachers when assessing and diagnosing DLD in bilinguals.

A comparison of narrative abilities in Malay school-age typically developing children and children with developmental language disorder.

Research on narrative skills in the Malay language is scarce for both typically developing (TD) and children with Developmental Language Disorders (DLD). This study examines the differences in narrative abilities of Malay-speaking school-age children with and without DLD. Fifteen Malay-speaking TD children and 15 children with DLD told four stories elicited using the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narrative (MAIN). Group comparisons were conducted in narrative production (story retelling and story generation) as well as in comprehension. We also examined the differences in both groups' story complexity (e.g. the combination of goals (G), attempts (A) and outcomes (O)). General microstructure features such as the total number of words (TNW), total number of sentences (TNS) and total number of different words (NDW) were also investigated. TD children outperformed children with DLD in both narrative production and comprehension performances. TD children constructed a higher combination of G, A, and O components than children with DLD. Children with DLD frequently produced G, A, and O in isolation in comparison to TD children. In language productivity and lexical complexity, TD children had a significantly higher frequency in TNW and NDW than children with DLD, resulting in longer narratives and higher uses of different words than children with DLD. Distinct differences are found in the narrative profile of TD children and children with DLD. The results are relatively consistent with the findings of similar studies that utilised and adapted the MAIN in other languages. Clinical implications and recommendations are discussed.

Differences in Cortical Surface Area in Developmental Language Disorder.

Approximately 7% of children have developmental language disorder (DLD), a neurodevelopmental condition associated with persistent language learning difficulties without a known cause. Our understanding of the neurobiological basis of DLD is limited. Here, we used FreeSurfer to investigate cortical surface area and thickness in a large cohort of 156 children and adolescents aged 10-16 years with a range of language abilities, including 54 with DLD, 28 with a history of speech-language difficulties who did not meet criteria for DLD, and 74 age-matched controls with typical language development (TD). We also examined cortical asymmetries in DLD using an automated surface-based technique. Relative to the TD group, those with DLD showed smaller surface area bilaterally in the inferior frontal gyrus extending to the anterior insula, in the posterior temporal and ventral occipito-temporal cortex, and in portions of the anterior cingulate and superior frontal cortex. Analysis of the whole cohort using a language proficiency factor revealed that language ability correlated positively with surface area in similar regions. There were no differences in cortical thickness, nor in asymmetry of these cortical metrics between TD and DLD. This study highlights the importance of distinguishing between surface area and cortical thickness in investigating the brain basis of neurodevelopmental disorders and suggests the development of cortical surface area to be of importance to DLD. Future longitudinal studies are required to understand the developmental trajectory of these cortical differences in DLD and how they relate to language maturation.

Language growth in verbal autistic children from 5 to 11 years.

To examine predictors and growth in language for verbal autistic and non-autistic children with/without low language from 4 to 11 years. Receptive and expressive language trajectories were compared in a community sample of 1026 children at ages 5, 7, and 11 years, across four groups: two autistic groups; one with and one without low language; and two non-autistic groups; one with and one without low language. Groups were delineated on baseline assessment at 4 years. Non-autistic and autistic children with low language had lower mean expressive language scores than the non-autistic typical language group (22.26 and 38.53 units lower, respectively, p < 0.001), yet demonstrated faster language growth across 5 to 11 years (p < 0.001 and p = 0.002, respectively). Both groups without low language had similar mean expressive language scores (p = 0.864) and a comparable rate of growth (p = 0.645). Language at 4 years was the only consistent predictor of language at 11 years for autistic children. Results were similar for receptive language in all analyses except there was no significant difference in rate of progress (slope) for the autistic with low language group compared with the typical language group (p = 0.272). Findings suggest early language ability, rather than a diagnosis of autism, is key to determining language growth and outcomes at 11 years in verbal children. Furthermore, children with low language showed developmental acceleration compared with same age peers.

Lexical-semantic processing in preschoolers with Developmental Language Disorder: an eye tracking study.

This study examined lexical-semantic processing in children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) during visually situated comprehension of real-time spoken words. Existing evidence suggests that children with DLD may experience challenges in lexical access and retrieval, as well as greater lexical competition compared to their peers with Typical Development (TD). However, the specific nature of these difficulties remains unclear. Using eye-tracking methodology, the study investigated the real-time comprehension of semantic relationships in children with DLD and their age-matched peers. The results revealed that, for relatively frequent nouns, both groups demonstrated similar comprehension of semantic relationships. Both groups favored the semantic competitor when it appeared with an unrelated visual referent. In turn, when the semantic competitor appeared with the visual referent of the spoken word, both groups disregarded the competitor. This finding shows that, although children with DLD usually present a relatively impoverished vocabulary, frequent nouns may not pose greater difficulties for them. While the temporal course of preference for the competitor or the referent was similar between the two groups, numerical, though non-significant, differences in the extension of the clusters were observed. In summary, this research demonstrates that monolingual preschoolers with DLD exhibit similar lexical access to frequent words compared to their peers with TD. Future studies should investigate the performance of children with DLD on less frequent words to provide a comprehensive understanding of their lexical-semantic abilities.

THE USE OF CLASSIFIERS IN VIETNAMESE IN TYPICAL AND ATYPICAL LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT.

The acquisition of numeral classifiers and their associated syntactic structures has been documented and studied in a broad range of East and Southeast Asian languages among typically-developing (TD) young speakers. However, little research has considered how classifiers are acquired by children with developmental language disorder (DLD). The current paper compares and analyzes the development of numeral classifier patterns among a set of Vietnamese speakers, TD and DLD, studied over three years, from kindergarten to second grade. The investigation highlights differences in the performance of children with TD and DLD and describes the areas of classifier use that seem to be most challenging. Children with DLD produced more errors of classifier omission in kindergarten, showed more random alternations in representational forms, and delays in the development of three element classifier structures. Findings are discussed in terms of future directions in the study of classifier use in Vietnamese speakers with DLD.

Grammatical correction and morphological productivity tasks as potential identifiers of developmental language disorder in Spanish-Catalan bilingual children: a pilot study.

A critical problem for Catalan-Spanish bilinguals is the lack of assessment tools to conduct valid and accurate oral language evaluations. The purpose of this preliminary study was to provide pilot data for a new potential assessment tool in Catalan. We examined the possibility that two novel tasks, a grammatical correction (GramCorr) and morphological productivity (MP; nonword and word subtasks), could differentiate between Catalan-speaking children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD) with good diagnostic accuracy. Twenty-seven school-aged children with DLD (Mage = 9;1 years) and twenty-seven age/sex-matched typically developing (TD) children (Mage = 9;0 years) participated in the study. Group differences and diagnostic accuracy analyses (sensitivity and specificity and likelihood ratios) were conducted. Results showed that the overall accuracy of children with DLD was significantly poorer than that of the TD controls in the two tasks. The preliminary diagnostic accuracy results suggested that the overall test (GramCorr+MP) could be useful in identifying children with DLD (cut-off point 62.1%; sensitivity (.929)/specificity (.893); +LH (8.67)/-LH (0.80). Moreover, the overall MP task (nonword + word subtasks; cut-off point 60%; sensitivity (.897)/specificity (.931), +LH (13.00)/-LH (0.111)) appears to provide adequate information to help in detecting DLD. The nature of both tasks, their usefulness for practitioners and future steps in the design of valid tools for the identification of Catalan speaking children with DLD are discussed.

On the role of syllable structure in atypical phonological development: Evidence from the acquisition of /l/ by Portuguese children.

The alveolar lateral is phonetically and phonologically complex. Previous studies have shown that /l/ is one of the last segments to be acquired by typically developing Portuguese children. However, little is known about how Portuguese children with atypical development acquire /l/. In this paper, we investigate the acquisition of /l/ by Portuguese children with protracted phonological development (DLD; SSD). We explore the effect of syllable structure and segmental properties in the acquisition of /l/ and describe mismatches used for target /l/, thus contributing empirical evidence to the ongoing discussion on differential diagnoses for children with primary phonological disorders. Our results show that the lateral is more problematic in SSD than in DLD, with the manner of articulation being more problematic than its place. A syllable-segment interface effect was attested. Mismatches showed a preference for [w, ɾ, ø]. The results are discussed considering their implications for clinical practice and the role of target phonetic and phonological properties in the /l/ acquisition path.

Identifying developmental language disorder (DLD) in multilingual children: A case study tutorial.

PURPOSE: A long-standing issue in identifying developmental language disorder (DLD) in multilingual children is differentiating between effects of language experience and genuine impairment when clinicians often lack suitable norm-referenced assessments. In this tutorial we demonstrate, via a case study, that it is feasible to identify DLD in a multilingual child using the CATALISE diagnostic criteria, Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings (LITMUS) assessment tools, and telepractice. METHOD: This tutorial features a case study of one 6-year-old Urdu-Cantonese multilingual ethnic minority child, and seven age- and grade-matched multilinguals. They were tested via Zoom using Urdu versions of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (LITMUS-MAIN), the Crosslinguistic Lexical Task (LITMUS-CLT), the Crosslinguistic Nonword Repetition Test (LITMUS-CL-NWR), and the Sentence Repetition Task (LITMUS-SRep). RESULT: The child scored significantly lower in the LITMUS tests compared to her peers in her best/first language of Urdu. Together with the presence of negative functional impact and poor prognostic features, and absence of associated biomedical conditions, the findings suggest this participant could be identified as having DLD using the CATALISE diagnostic criteria. CONCLUSION: The result demonstrates the promise of this approach to collect reference data and identify DLD in multilingual children. The online LITMUS battery has the potential to support identification of multilingual DLD in any target language.

Exploring Spanish writing abilities of children with developmental language disorder in expository texts.

Introduction: Numerous studies have shown that children with developmental language disorder (DLD), in addition to oral language difficulties, exhibit impaired writing abilities. Their texts contain problems in grammar, organization, cohesion, and length of written output. However, most of these studies have been conducted with English speakers. English is characterized by complex phonological structure, opaque orthography, poor morphology and strict word order. The aim of this research is to observe the writing abilities of children with DLD in a language with simple phonological structure, transparent orthography, rich morphology and flexible word order like Spanish in the production of expository texts. Methods: Twenty-six children with DLD (mean age in months = 128.85) and 26 age-and sex-matched typically developing (TD) children (mean age in months = 124.61) wrote an expository text about their favorite animal. Results: In order to analyze how the two groups plan and encode written texts, we looked at word frequency and sentence structure, grammatical complexity and lexical density, and omissions and errors. Compared to the TD group, the children with DLD omitted more content words; made more errors with functional words, verb conjugation and inflectional morphemes, and made a large number of spelling errors. Moreover, they wrote fewer words, fewer sentences, and less structurally and lexically complex texts. Discussion: These results show that children with DLD who speak a transparent orthography language such as Spanish also have difficulties in most language areas when producing written texts. Our findings should be considered when planning and designing interventions.

A systematic review of factors that impact reading comprehension in children with developmental language disorders.

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have a high rate of co-occurring reading difficulties. The current study aims to (i) examine which factors within the Active View of Reading (AVR; Duke & Cartwright, 2021) apply to individuals with DLD and (ii) investigate other possible factors that relate to reading comprehension ability in individuals with DLD, outside the components in the AVR. Electronic database search and journal hand-search yielded 5058 studies published before March 2022 related to reading comprehension in children with DLD. 4802 articles were excluded during abstract screening, yielding 256 studies eligible for full-text review. Following full-text review, 44 studies were included and further coded for demographics, language of assessment, description of reported disabilities, behavioral assessment, and reading comprehension assessment. While the results aligned with the AVR model, three additional factors were identified as significantly relating to reading comprehension abilities in children with DLD: expressive language (oral and written), question types of reading assessment, and language disorder history. Specifically, expressive language was positively associated with reading comprehension ability, while resolved DLD showed higher reading comprehension abilities than persistent DLD. Furthermore, children with DLD may face additional difficulties in comprehending inference-based questions. This study provides factors for researchers, educators, and clinical professionals to consider when evaluating the reading comprehension of individuals with DLD. Future research should further explore the relative importance of factors of the AVR to reading comprehension outcomes throughout development.

Narrative skills and language comprehension in preschool children with cochlear implants: A comparison with children with Developmental Language Disorder or typical development.

INTRODUCTION: The narrative skills of children with cochlear implants (CIs) are fragile, but the factors at play and whether these difficulties could be similar to those detected in language impairment are not clear. The present study aims to assess, at the microstructural level, narrative skills, comparing children with CIs with children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) or Typical Development (TD). Furthermore, the relationship between verbal (lexical and morphosyntactic) comprehension and narrative skills across groups is investigated. METHODS: The narratives of 19 children with CIs (Mage = 62.42 months, SD = 6.83), 13 children with DLD (Mage = 65.38 months, SD = 4.27), and 18 preschool children with TD (Mage = 63.67 months, SD = 4.31) were assessed in a standardized task. Articles, prepositions, pronouns, gender and number agreement, accuracy in the use of verbs, and number of arguments in each sentence were analysed. Lexical and morphosyntactic comprehension were also assessed. Performance was compared across groups using ANOVAs or Kruskal-Wallis tests. The role of lexical and morphosyntactic comprehension in predicting each morphological and syntactic element in the narrative task was examined using linear regressions. RESULTS: Data analysis showed that both children with CIs and DLD had fragilities in narration, both in the morphological and syntactic components. Although some differences between children with CIs and those with DLD emerged in descriptive analyses, these were not statistically significant. Regressions showed that morphosyntactic comprehension predicted the number of pronouns produced only in the TD group. CONCLUSIONS: The scarce differences between CI and DLD groups and the absence of an effect of morphosyntactic comprehension on pronoun production may be due to their low production of these elements in the narrative task and/or to a difficulty in managing pronouns in an expressive task regardless of their ability to comprehend them. Potential implications of these results are discussed.

Impaired Cortical Tracking of Speech in Children with Developmental Language Disorder.

In developmental language disorder (DLD), learning to comprehend and express oneself with spoken language is impaired, but the reason for this remains unknown. Using millisecond-scale magnetoencephalography recordings combined with machine learning models, we investigated whether the possible neural basis of this disruption lies in poor cortical tracking of speech. The stimuli were common spoken Finnish words (e.g., dog, car, hammer) and sounds with corresponding meanings (e.g., dog bark, car engine, hammering). In both children with DLD (10 boys and 7 girls) and typically developing (TD) control children (14 boys and 3 girls), aged 10-15 years, the cortical activation to spoken words was best modeled as time-locked to the unfolding speech input at ∼100 ms latency between sound and cortical activation. Amplitude envelope (amplitude changes) and spectrogram (detailed time-varying spectral content) of the spoken words, but not other sounds, were very successfully decoded based on time-locked brain responses in bilateral temporal areas; based on the cortical responses, the models could tell at ∼75-85% accuracy which of the two sounds had been presented to the participant. However, the cortical representation of the amplitude envelope information was poorer in children with DLD compared with TD children at longer latencies (at ∼200-300 ms lag). We interpret this effect as reflecting poorer retention of acoustic-phonetic information in short-term memory. This impaired tracking could potentially affect the processing and learning of words as well as continuous speech. The present results offer an explanation for the problems in language comprehension and acquisition in DLD.

Procedural Memory Deficits in Preschool Children with Developmental Language Disorder in a Spanish-Speaking Population.

This study aimed to compare procedural learning skills between Spanish-speaking preschool children (ages 4 years to 4 years, 11 months) with developmental language disorder (DLD) and their chronologically matched typically developing (TD) peers. Using the serial reaction time (SRT) task, participants (30 children with DLD and 30 TD children) responded to visual stimuli in a sequenced manner over four blocks, followed by a random order block. The task assessed reaction time (RT) and accuracy. The results showed a significant interaction between group and block for RT and accuracy, with children with DLD exhibiting longer RTs and accuracy deficits across blocks. In contrast, the TD group showed higher RT efficiency and accuracy in the sequential blocks and, as expected, decreased performance in the random block according to the experimental manipulation. Overall, the results of this investigation suggest that there was no implicit learning in the DLD group, as indicated by the SRT task paradigms of procedural memory. These findings align with some aspects of the procedural deficit hypothesis (PDH), which suggests that linguistic deficits in the DLD population may derive from a deficit in sequential learning from the procedural memory system domain in the Spanish context.

A comparison of learning and retention of a syntactic construction between Cantonese-speaking children with and without DLD in a priming task.

Procedural circuit Deficit Hypothesis (PDH) of Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) predicts problems with learning and retention of grammar. Twenty 7- to 9-year-old Cantonese-speaking children with DLD and their typically developing (TD) age peers participated in a syntactic priming task that was given in two sessions one week apart. Production of Indirect Object Relative Clause (IORC) was tested using a probe test before and after the priming task, and one week later. The study involved two cycles of learning and retention, and two levels of prior knowledge. Bayesian linear mixed effects modelling was used for data analysis. Children with DLD learned, and possibly retained, IORC less well than TD children after age, working memory and general grammatical knowledge were controlled for. No interaction effects were significant, meaning that cycle and prior knowledge affected both groups similarly in learning and retention. Results were discussed in relation to PDH and the Complementary Learning Systems Theory.