단순 언어장애유아와 일반유아의 작업기억 및 음운 인식 특성연구

A Comparative Study on the Working Memory between Children with Specific Language Impairment and Normal Language

본 연구는 단순언어장애유아와 일반유아의 작업 기억과 음운 인식 능력을 조사하고 작업 기억과 아동들의 언어 능력 간의 관계를 조사하는 것이 목적이다. 단순언어장애유아 10명과 생활 연령이 같은 일반유아 10명이 본 연구에 참여하였다. 음운 루프 검사를 위해 무의미 단어 반복하기 검사와 수회생 검사가 사용되었고 Mr. Cucumber 검사가 시공간잡기장 검사를 위해 사용되었다. 그리고 읽기 구간 검사가 중앙집행기 검사를 위해 사용되었다. 결과는 다음과 같다. 무의미단어반복 검사에서 단순언어장애 아동들이 능력이 뒤떨어지는 것으로 나타났다. 그러나 수회생에서는 두 집단간에 유의미한 차이가 없었다. 음운 루프 능력에서 단순언어장애유아가 일반 유아보다 뒤떨어졌다. 시공간잡기장 능력에서는 두 집단간에 차이가 없었다. 중앙집행기를 검사하는 읽기 구간 검사에서는 단순언어장애유아의 능력이 뒤떨어졌다. 그러나 아동들의 언어 능력, 음운 인식 능력을 통제했을 때는 두 집단간에 유의한 차이가 있지 않았다. 이는 단순언어장애유아의 열등한 작업기억능력은 그들의 열등한 언어능력과 음운 인식 능력을 반영하는 것일 뿐이라는 것을 시사한다.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the working memory of children with Specific Language Impairment and normal language and to examine the relation between these children's working memory capacity and their language competence. Ten children with SLI and ten chronological age-matched (age range = 3;6 to 6;6) children with typical language development participated in this study. Children are usually identified by researchers as having s specific language impairment when there are no obvious contributing factors, such as hearing impairment, neurological impairment, or mental retardation, that can account for below-age language ability. And normal nonverbal IQ scores are necessary for a diagnosis of SLI.The ‘Nonword Repetition test’ and the ‘Digit Span test’ was used to test the Phonological loop, ‘Mr. Cucumber test’ was used to test the Visuo-Spatial Sketch Pad, and ‘Reading Span test’ was used to test the Central Executor. The conclusion from the results and discussion are as follows:First, the performance of the children with SLI in Nonword Repetition test was lower than children with normal language, but no significant between-group differences were found on Digit Span test. This suggests a more limited capacity of the phonological loop function in children with SLI. Second, no significant between-group differences were found on Mr. Cucumber test. Third, children with SLI showed lower performance on the Reading Span test. This means children with SLI have difficulty maintaining and processing verbal information in their working memory.Forth, when we examined working memory capacity between children with SLI and normal language controlling their phonological awareness and their language age, no significant between-group differences were found. Accordingly poorer performance of children with SLI on working memory test reflect their poor language competence and poor phonological awareness.