The aim of the present study was to directly compare working memory skills across students with different developmental disorders to investigate whether the uniqueness of their diagnosis would impact memory skills. The authors report findings confirming differential memory profiles on the basis of the following developmental disorders: Specific Language Impairment, Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, and Asperger syndrome (AS). Specifically, language impairments were associated with selective deficits in verbal short-term and working memory, whereas motor impairments (DCD) were associated with selective deficits in visuospatial short-term and working memory. Children with attention problems were impaired in working memory in both verbal and visuospatial domains, whereas the children with AS had deficits in verbal short-term memory but not in any other memory component. The implications of these findings are discussed in light of support for learning.
Alloway, T.P. (2007a). Automated Working Memory Assessment. London: Pearson Assessment.
2.
Alloway, T.P. (2007b). Working memory, reading and mathematical skills in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 96, 20-36.
3.
Alloway, T.P., & Archibald, L.M. (2008). A comparison of working memory and learning in children with developmental coordination disorder and specific language impairment. Journal of Learning Disabilities , 41, 251-262.
4.
Alloway, T.P., Gathercole, S.E., Holmes, J., Place, M., & Elliott, J. (2008). A comparison of sustained attention and behavioural problems in children with ADHD and children with poor working memory. Manuscript under review.
5.
Alloway, T.P., Gathercole, S.E., Kirkwood, H.J., & Elliott, J.E. (2008). Evaluating the validity of the Automated Working Memory Assessment. Educational Psychology, 7, 725-734.
6.
Alloway, T.P., Gathercole, S.E., Kirkwood, H.J., & Elliott, J.E. (in press). The cognitive and behavioural characteristics of children with low working memory. Child Development.
7.
Alloway, T.P., Gathercole, S.E., & Pickering, S.J. (2006). Verbal and visuo-spatial short-term and working memory in children: Are they separable? Child Development, 77, 1698-1716.
8.
Alloway, T.P., Gathercole, S.E., Willis, C., & Adams, A.M. (2004). A structural analysis of working memory and related cognitive skills in early childhood. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 87, 85-106.
9.
Alloway, T.P. & Temple, K.J. (2007). A comparison of working memory profiles and learning in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder and moderate learning difficulties. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 21, 473-487.
10.
Alloway, T.P., & Warner, C. (2008). The effect of task-specific training on learning and memory in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 107, 273-280.
11.
American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author .
12.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text revision). Washington, DC: Author.
13.
Archibald, L.M., & Alloway, T.P. (2008). Comparing language profiles: Children with Specific Language Impairment and Developmental Coordination Disorder. International Journal of Communication and Language Disorders, 43, 165-180.
14.
Archibald, L.M.D., & Gathercole, S.E. (2006). Short-term memory and working memory Specific Language Impairment. In T. P. Alloway & S. E. Gathercole (Eds.), Working memory and neurodevelopmental conditions (pp. 139-160). Hove, UK: Psychology Press.
15.
Archibald, L.M.D., & Gathercole, S.E. (2007). The complexities of complex span: Specifying working memory deficits in SLI. Journal of Memory and Language, 57, 177-194.
16.
Baddeley, A.D. (2000). The episodic buffer: A new component of working memory? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4, 417-423.
17.
Baddeley, A.D., & Hitch, G.J. (1974). Working memory. In G. A. Bower (Ed.), Recent advances in learning and motivation (Vol. 8, pp. 47-90). New York: Academic Press.
18.
Baddeley, A.D., & Logie, R.H. (1999). Working memory: The multiple component model. In A. Miyake & P. Shah (Eds.), Models of working memory (pp. 28-61). New York: Cambridge University Press.
19.
Baird, G., Simonoff, E., Pickles, A., Chandler, S., Loucas, T., Meldrum, D., et al. (2006). Prevalence of disorders of the autism spectrum in a population cohort of children in South Thames: The Special Needs and Autism Project (SNAP). Lancet, 368, 210-215.
20.
Barkley, R.A. (1997). Behavioural inhibition, sustained attention and executive functions: Constructing a unifying theory of ADHD. Psychological Bulletin, 121, 65-94.
21.
Bavin, E.L., Wilson, P.H., Maruff, P., & Sleeman, F. (2005). Spatio-visual memory of children with Specific Language Impairment: Evidence for generalized processing problems. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 40, 319-332.
22.
Bayliss, D.M., Jarrold, C., Gunn, D.M., & Baddeley, A.D. (2003). The complexities of complex span: Explaining individual differences in working memory in children and adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 132, 71-92.
23.
Belleville, S., Ménard, E., Mottron, L., & Ménard, M.-C. (2006). Working memory in autism. In T. P. Alloway & S. E. Gathercole (Eds.), Working memory and neurodevelopmental conditions (pp. 213-238). London: Psychology Press.
24.
Belleville, S., Rouleau, N., & Caza, N. (1998). Effect of normal aging on the manipulation of information in working memory. Memory and Cognition, 26, 572-583.
25.
Bennetto, L., Pennington, B.F., & Rogers, S.J. (1996). Intact and impaired memory functions in autism . Child Development, 67, 1816-1835.
26.
Bishop, D.V.M. (1982). TROG-Test for Reception of Grammar. London: Medical Research Council\Chapel Press.
27.
Bishop, D.V.M., Adams, C., Lehtonen, A., & Rosen, S. (2005). Effectiveness of computerised spelling training in children with language impairments: A comparison of modified and unmodified speech input. Journal of Research in Reading, 28, 144-157.
28.
Bishop, D.V.M., North, T., & Donlan, C. (1996). Nonword repetition as a behavioural marker for inherited language impairment: Evidence from a twin study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 37, 391-403.
29.
Bonifacci, P. (2004). Children with low motor ability have lower visual-motor integration ability but unaffected perceptual skills. Human Movement Science, 23, 157-168.
30.
Bull, R., & Scerif, G. (2001). Executive functioning as a predictor of children's mathematics ability: Shifting, inhibition and working memory. Developmental Neuropsychology, 19, 273-293.
31.
Centers for Disease Control. (1999). Summary health statistics for US adults, National Health Interview Survey . Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs
32.
Coleman, R., Piek, J.P., & Livesey, D.J. (2001). A longitudinal study of motor ability and kinaesthetic acuity in young children at risk of developmental coordination disorder. Human Movement Science, 20, 95-110.
33.
Conners, K. (2004). Continuous Performance Test. Toronto, Canada: Multi-Health Systems.
34.
Cowan, N., & Alloway, T.P. (in press). The development of working memory. In N. Cowan (Ed.), Development of memory in childhood (2nd ed.). Hove, UK: Psychology Press.
35.
Dunn, L.M., Dunn, L.M., Whetton, C.W., & Burley, J. (1997). The British Picture Vocabulary Scales (2nd ed.). Windsor, UK: NFER Nelson.
36.
Ellis Weismer, S., Evans, J., & Hesketh, L. (1999). An examination of verbal working memory capacity in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech. Language and Hearing Research, 42, 1249-1260.
37.
Flax, J.F., Realpe-Bonilla, T., Hirsch, L.S., Brzustowicz, L.M., Bartlett, C.W., & Tallal, P. (2003). Specific Language Impairment in families: Evidence for co-occurrence with reading impairments. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 46, 530-543.
38.
Francis, D., Clark, N., & Humphreys, G. (2003). The treatment of an auditory working memory deficit and the implications for sentence comprehension abilities in mild "receptive" aphasia. Aphasiology, 17, 723-750.
39.
Frith, U., & Happé, F. (1998). Why specific developmental disorders are not specific: On-line and developmental effect in autism and dyslexia. Developmental Science, 1, 267-272.
40.
Gathercole, S.E., & Alloway, T.P. (2008). Working memory and learning: A practical guide . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
41.
Gathercole, S.E., Alloway, T.P., Willis, C.S., & Adams, A.M. (2006). Working memory in children with reading disabilities . Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 93, 265-281.
42.
Gathercole, S., & Baddeley, A. (1990). Phonological memory deficits in language disordered children: Is there a causal connection? Journal of Memory and Language, 29, 336-360.
43.
Gathercole, S.E., Hitch, G.J., Service, E., & Martin, A.J. (1997). Short-term memory and long-term learning in children . Developmental Psychology, 33, 966-979.
44.
Gershon, J. (2002). A meta-analytic review of gender differences in ADHD. Journal of Attentional Disorders, 5, 143-154.
45.
Gersten, R., Jordan, N.C., & Flojo, J.R. (2005). Early identification and interventions for students with mathematics difficulties. Journal of Learning Disabilities , 38, 293-304.
46.
Henderson, S.E., & Sugden, D.A. (1992). Movement Assessment Battery for Children. London: Pearson Assessment.
Hick, R., Botting, N., & Conti-Ramsden, G. (2005). Short-term memory and vocabulary development in children with Down syndrome and children with Specific Language Impairment. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology , 47, 532-538.
49.
Hoffman, L.M., & Gillam, R.B. (2004). Verbal and spatial information processing constraints in children with and without Specific Language Impairment. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 47, 114-125.
50.
Jonides, J., Lacey, S.C., & Nee, D.E. (2005). Processes of working memory in mind and brain . Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14, 2-5.
51.
Kane, M.J., Hambrick, D.Z., Tuholski, S.W., Wilhelm, O., Payne, T.W., & Engle, R.W. (2004). The generality of working memory capacity: A latent variable approach to verbal and visuo-spatial memory span and reasoning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 189-217.
52.
Klingberg, T., Fernell, E., Olesen, P.J., Johnson, M., Gustafsson, P., Dahlstrom, K., et al. (2005). Computerized training of working memory in children with ADHD-A randomized, controlled trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 44, 177-186.
53.
Leonard, L.B. (1998). Children with Specific Language Impairment. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
54.
Lord, C., Rutter, M., DiLavore, D., & Risi, S. (1999). Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) . Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services.
55.
Mandich, A., & Polatajko, H.J. (2003). Developmental coordination disorder: Mechanisms, measurement and management. Human Movement Science, 22, 407-411.
56.
Martinussen, R., Hayden, J., Hogg-Johnson, S., & Tannock, R. (2005). A meta-analysis of working memory impairments in children Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 44, 377-384.
57.
Mehta, M.A., Goodyear, I.M., & Sahakian, B.J. (2004). Methylphenidate improves working memory function and set-shifting AD/HD: Relationships to baseline memory capacity. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry , 45, 293-305.
58.
Montgomery, J. (2000). Verbal working memory in sentence comprehension in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 43, 293-308.
59.
Ozonoff, S., & Strayer, D.L. (2001). Further evidence of intact working memory in autism . Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 31, 257-263.
60.
Pickering, S.J., & Gathercole, S.E. (2001). Working Memory Test Battery for Children. London: Pearson Assessment .
Records, N., & Tomblin, J.B. (1994). Clinical decision making: Describing the decision rules of practicing speech-language pathologists. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 37, 144-156.
63.
Roodenrys, S. (2006). Working memory function in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. In T. P. Alloway & S. E. Gathercole (Eds.), Working memory and neurodevelopmental disorders (pp. 187-212). Hove, UK: Psychology Press.
64.
Rucklidge, J.J. & Tannock, R. (2002). Neuropsychological profiles of adolescents with ADHD: Effects of reading difficulties and gender. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines, 43, 988-1003.
65.
Russell, J., Jarrold, C., & Henry, L. (1996). Working memory in children with autism and with moderate learning difficulties. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 37, 673-686.
66.
Semel, E., Wiig, E., & Secord, W. (1995). Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-UK 3. London: Pearson Assessment.
67.
Skuse, D., Warrington, R., Bishop, D.V.M., Chowdury, U., Mandy, W., & Place, M. (2004). The Developmental, Diagnostic and Dimensional Interview (3di): A novel computerised assessment for autistic spectrum disorders . Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 43, 548-558.
68.
Swanson, H.L. (2003). Age-related differences in learning disabled and skilled readers' working memory. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 85, 1-31.
69.
Swanson, H.L., & Beebe-Frankenberger, M. (2004). The relationship between working memory and mathematical problem solving in children at risk and not at risk for math disabilities. Journal of Education Psychology , 96, 471-491.
70.
Visser, J. (2003). Developmental coordination disorder: A review of research on subtypes and comorbidities. Human Movement Science, 22, 479-493.
71.
Wechsler, D. (1992). Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (3rd ed.). London: Pearson Assessment.
72.
Williams, D.L., Goldstein, G., Carpenter, P.A., & Minshew, N.J. (2005). Verbal spatial working memory in autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 35, 747-756.
73.
Williams, K.T. (1997). Expressive Vocabulary Test. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.
74.
van Mourik, R., Oosterlaan, J., & Sergeant, J.A. (2005). The Stroop revisited: A meta-analysis of interference control in AD/HD. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 46, 150-165.
75.
Willcutt, E.G., Pennington, B.F., Olson, R.K., Chhabildas, N., & Hulslander, J. (2005). Neuropsychological analyses of comorbidity between reading disability and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: In search of the common deficit. Developmental Neuropsychology , 27, 35-78.
