Analogical reasoning in children with specific language impairment: Evidence from a scene analogy task

ABSTRACT

Analogical reasoning is a human ability that maps systems of relations. It develops along with relational knowledge, working memory and executive functions such as inhibition. It also maintains a mutual influence on language development. Some authors have taken a greater interest in the analogical reasoning ability of children with language disorders, specifically those with specific language impairment (SLI). These children apparently have weaker analogical reasoning abilities than their aged-matched peers without language disorders. Following cognitive theories of language acquisition, this deficit could be one of the causes of language disorders in SLI, especially those concerning productivity. To confirm this deficit and its link to language disorders, we use a scene analogy task to evaluate the analogical performance of SLI children and compare them to controls of the same age and linguistic abilities. Results show that children with SLI perform worse than age-matched peers, but similar to language-matched peers. They are more influenced by increased task difficulty. The association between language disorders and analogical reasoning in SLI can be confirmed. The hypothesis of limited processing capacity in SLI is also being considered.

KEYWORDS:

• Analogical reasoning
• language acquisition
• specific language impairment

Acknowledgments

We thank the children in the study, as well as the parents, teachers, and speech-language therapists. We greatly appreciated the help of Lindsey Richland, who understood why we used the scene analogy task.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no declarations of interest.

Funding

This work was supported by the FRESH fund of the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique.