Abstract
Studies have suggested that language and executive function (EF) are strongly associated. Indeed, the two are difficult to separate, and it is particularly difficult to determine whether one skill is more dependent on the other. Deafness provides a unique opportunity to disentangle these skills because in this case, language difficulties have a sensory not cognitive basis. In this study, deaf (n = 108) and hearing (n = 125) children (age 8 years) were assessed on language and a wide range of nonverbal EF tasks. Deaf children performed significantly less well on EF tasks, even controlling for nonverbal intelligence and speed of processing. Language mediated EF skill, but the reverse pattern was not evident. Findings suggest that language is key to EF performance rather than vice versa.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1689-1700 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Child Development |
| Volume | 88 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2017 |
Open Access - Access Right Statement
© 2016 The Authors Child Development published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society for Research in Child Development. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Fingerprint
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