Do children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) present implicit learning (IL) deficits? Evidence from an Artificial Grammar Learning (AGL) paradigm

Specific Language Impairment (SLI) is a neurodevelopmental disorder involving language deficits in the absence of other associated condition [1]. The aetiology of SLI is hotly debated, ranging from representational deficits in grammar to impairments in the cognitive processes that underlie language acquisition. Recent research, suggests that SLI difficulties may arise from implicit learning (IL) deficits, i.e. impairments in the cognitive mechanisms that allow children to extract the structural regularities present in the input and to generalize it to new contexts [2]. IL studies have been conducted mainly with adults and unimpaired children using the Serial Reaction Time Task (SRTT). The few studies conducted with language impaired children produced inconsistent results [3]. Since performance of this task involves a motor component that seems to be also impaired in SLI, it is critical to conduct studies using other tasks and paradigms.