A person-centered approach to examining effects on the interaction between cognitive control & language development

Abstract

This paper examines the interaction between cognitive control and language in preschool- and school-age children across a continuum of language ability from a person-centered perspective. Working memory, inhibitory control, and attention are cognitive control functions that are highly correlated with language skills in children of varying language ability, including those who are typically developing, as well as in those who have language disorders and language talent, or giftedness. Children with developmental language disorder (DLD), for example, demonstrate poor working memory and weak resistance to distractor and proactive interference on a range of tasks across modalities and domains. At the other end of the language ability continuum, children with language talent exhibit superior performance in language, working memory, and interference tasks. Analysis of the interconnections across working memory, inhibitory control, and attention in children with different language skills allows us to highlight how specific functions are impaired, whereas others are spared during development within each population. This research also demonstrates how associations and dissociations in cognitive control functions are related to both task design and conditions, alongside individual differences in children’s abilities.

The objective of this paper is to present a person-centered approach that describes the relationship between cognitive control and language development in the context of global and local factors, as well as individual skills. This integrative framework synthesizes selected components and processes of cognitive control and language and may guide each discipline in informing the other.