Implicit Learning of Prepositions in Dutch Kindergartners with and without Developmental Language Disorder

Figures & data

Figure 1. Picture-matching task: example of a trial in each of the four conditions. 1: Example condition 1 with an animate subject (mouse) and inanimate prepositional object (closet). 2: Example condition 2 with an inanimate subject (closet) and animate prepositional object (mouse). 3: Example condition 3 with an animate subject (mouse) and an animate prepositional object (bear). 4: Example condition 4 with an inanimate subject (closet) and inanimate prepositional object (couch).

Table 1. Summary of demographic and cognitive measures (control variables) for children with DLD and TD children.

	DLD (N = 32) F = 9 Monolingual = 18	TD (N = 30) F = 12 Monolingual = 26		Difference DLD – TD		Effect size
	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)	t	p	95% CI	Cohen’s d
Age (Years; months)	5;6 (6 months)	5;9 (5 months)	−1.8	.07	[−5, 0]	−0.47
Nonverbal reasoning^a
Raw score	17 (5)	22 (5)	−3.4	.001	[−7, −2]	−0.88
Verbal short-term memory^b
Raw score	4 (1)	6 (2)	−5.5	1.5·10^−6	[−3, −1]	1.4
Visual sustained attention^b
d’ score^c	1.5 (0.9)	1.9 (0.8)	−1.7	.097	[−0.86, +0.074]	−0.45

Note. ^aMissing data for 1 child with DLD; ^bMissing data for 8 children with DLD (6 children did not understood the task and 2 children were absent at days that we collected data from these tasks) and 1 typically developing child (absent on day of testing); ^cd’ score close to 3 is perfect performance and a d’ score close to 0 means guessing. DLD = Developmental Language Disorder; TD = Typically Developing.

Figure 2. Children’s medium raw percentages correct across the four conditions of the preposition comprehension test. DLD (grey) = Developmental Language Disorder; TD (red) = Typically Developing.

Figure 3.  Medium raw percentages correct across the four conditions of the preposition comprehension test for children with DLD before they listened and watched the digital story (pretest; grey) and after they listened and watched the story (posttest; brown).