Narrative generation and narrative recall recruit different executive functions in preschoolers with and without developmental language disorder

Abstract

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) are poor at story-telling and show weaknesses in various executive functions (EFs). Narrative tasks are frequently used in clinical assessment to capture the linguistic vulnerabilities of individuals with DLD. But we know little about the demands of different narrative tasks on EFs. This study explores the relationship between EFs in a daily life context and performance on two narrative tasks. Fourteen Mandarin-speaking preschoolers with DLD and 34 typically-developing (TD) controls completed a story generation and a story recall task. Their parents filled out the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functions-Preschool (BRIEF-P). The TD group outperformed the DLD group on narrative macrostructure and microstructure, and the inhibit, shift, and global executive composites of the BRIEF-P. On the story recall task, after controlling for standardised language test scores, working memory scores explained unique variance in both narrative macrostructure and microstructure performance. On the story generation task, after controlling for language skills, macrostructure performance was predicted by inhibit, working memory, and plan/organisation composites, and microstructure performance was predicted by the inhibit composite. Narrative recall relies heavily on working memory capacity as children must recall the details provided in the mature adult model; narrative generation requires multiple EFs as children must plan the organisation of story elements, selectively attend to relevant visual details in the pictorial stimuli, and monitor their own language production. The findings have implications for understanding the sources of language difficulties in DLD and the selection of narrative task in clinical practice.