PRAXIS AND MEMORY DEFICITS IN LANGUAGE-IMPAIRED CHILDREN

Research with adults with brain injury has suggested that the left hem isphere is specialized for language, praxis, and memory for motor acts . In children, however, the link among deficits in language, praxis, a nd memory has received little attention. The purpose of this study was to investigate praxis and memory skills in children identified as lan guage impaired. Participants included 35 children (22 boys, 15 girls) between the ages of 6.0 and 10.11. Of these, 15 were in the language-i mpaired (LI) group and 20 were in the control group. Praxis was assess ed using measures that required the participants to perform limb and o rofacial gestures, and memory skills were assessed using the Wide Rang e Assessment of Memory and Learning (Sheslow & Adams, 1990). Results r evealed that the praxis skills of the LI children were significantly p oorer than those of the control children. On the tests of memory skill s, the LI children were found to score loser than the control children on immediate verbal memory; visual memory was unaffected. These findi ngs suggest that deficits in praxis, verbal memory, and language skill s tend to co-occur. Further, they provide support for the idea that ch ildren with language disorders may be impaired in their performance of motor acts because they lack both the language and immediate verbal m emory skills needed to encode motor acts into memory.