Children with specific language impairment are impaired on implicit higher-order sequence learning, but not on implicit spatial context learning.

In a recent review of the SLI literature it has been suggested that low language and grammatical abilities would be directly associated with poor learning abilities of nonverbal sequences (Ullman & Pierpont, 2005; Tomblin et al., 2007). Therefore, one could hypothesize that a general purpose sequential pattern tracker could determine some aspects of language and grammar learning. In the present study, 15 children with SLI and 15 matched control children were compared on two implicit learning tasks: an alternating serial response time task in which sequential dependencies exist across non-adjacent elements, and a spatial context learning task in which the global configuration of a display cues the location of a searched target (Chun & Jiang, 1998). We predict that children with SLI will show impaired sequence learning and normal spatial context learning. By confirming the presence of a specific deficit in sequential learning processes, the present study should contribute to better understand the language abilities, and in particular the grammatical difficulties, of individuals with specific language impairment.