Phonological Working Memory and Speech Production in Preschool Children

This study investigates whether phonological working memory is associated with spoken language development in preschool children. Assessments were made of speech corpora taken from 3-year old children grouped in terms of their phonological memory abilities. Both quantitative and qualitative indices of the children’s spontaneous speech output were taken in a structured play session. Significant differences were found, with children of good phonological memory abilities producing language that was more grammatically complex, contained a richer array of words, and included longer utterances than children of poor phonological memory abilities. The possible mechanisms by which phonological working memory skills are linked to the production of speech are considered.