Executive Function in Children with Typical and Atypical Language Abilities

描述（由申请人提供）：执行功能（EF）在社会，情感，学术和职业领域的重要性是众所周知的。本研究的目的是探讨典型和非典型发展的学龄儿童的语言和EF能力之间的关联。有两个独立的研究为语言和EF之间存在关系提供了实证支持。首先，双语研究表明，两种语言的经验有助于EF技能。其次，残疾文献集中在执行控制功能障碍是否可能是与特定语言障碍（SLI）和自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）相关的潜在缺陷的因素之一。在这两个帐户中，有一些相互矛盾的证据，这两种方法都未充分指定的EF的特定组件和特定的语言功能，可能会被链接。该项目将通过研究典型发展的双语和单语儿童，SLI儿童和ASD儿童的语言和执行功能之间的关系，弥合双语和障碍文献。Zelazo及其同事提出的执行控制发展理论是探索语言与执行功能关系的理论基础。通过调查不同语言能力的群体的执行功能表现，我们的目标是测试这个模型的关键假设，使用语言来管理执行控制。共160名儿童（每组40人）将参加四项研究，旨在解决以下三个具体目标：1）比较年龄和非语言认知匹配的双语，单语，SLI和ASD组在一系列EF测量上的表现; 2）检查EF的特定组成部分与语言知识，处理和学习之间的并行和纵向关系。（3）直接评估言语中介在具有典型和非典型语言能力的人群中的作用。拟议的项目代表了一种创新的方法，建立一个全面的概念框架，涵盖从语言/EF能力增强到语言/EF障碍的个体差异程度。该项目的研究结果也可能对语言障碍儿童的有针对性的干预措施产生影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The importance of executive function (EF) in social, emotional, academic and career domains is well established. The goal of the proposed research is to investigate the association between language and EF abilities in school-age children with typical and atypical development. There are two separate lines of research that provide empirical support for the existence of a relationship between language and EF. First, research on bilingualism suggests that experience with two languages facilitates EF skills. Second, the disabilities literature has focused on whether dysfunction in executive control may be one of the factors underlying deficits associated with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). In both accounts, there is some conflicting evidence and both approaches are underspecified in terms of the particular components of EF and specific language functions that may be linked. The proposed project will bridge the bilingualism and the disorders literatures by examining the relationship between language and executive function in typically-developing bilingual and monolingual children, children with SLI, and children with ASD. The theoretical motivation for exploring the relationship between language and EF stems from a leading developmental theory of executive control proposed by Zelazo and colleagues. By investigating EF performance across groups with varying language abilities we aim to test a critical assumption of this model related to the use of language to manage executive control. A total of 160 children (40 per group) will participate in four studies designed to address the following three specific aims: 1) Compare the performance of bilingual, monolingual, SLI, and ASD groups matched on age and nonverbal cognition on a range of EF measures; 2) Examine the concurrent and longitudinal relationship between specific components of EF and language knowledge, processing, and learning across the groups; and 3) Directly assess the role of verbal mediation in EF across these groups with typical and atypical language abilities. The proposed project represents an innovative approach to establishing a comprehensive conceptual framework that spans the extent of individual variation from enhanced abilities in language/EF to impairments in language/EF. Findings from this project also have potential implications for targeted interventions for children with language disorders.