How children with developmental language disorders solve nonverbal tasks

Abstract

Abstract While solving tasks that test their intelligence, children suffering from developmental language disorders (DLD) usually receive lower scores than their typically developing (TD) peers. The present study aimed to assess how children with DLD solve typical nonverbal tasks. Sixty-five children (ages 6-9 years), monolingual users of the Polish language, participated in this study (34 with DLD, 31 TD). The Test of Language Development (TLD) was used to assess language development. Three tasks from the ABC II Kaufmann were used: triangles, story completion, and conceptual thinking. Children with DLD scored significantly lower than TD children in conceptual thinking and story completion. Scores on the triangles test did not correlate significantly with scores on the linguistic tests, whereas conceptual thinking and story completion were highly intercorrelated. While solving the task that required choosing an object that does not match other objects, children with DLD frequently selected different answers than TD children.