Statistical-learning (SL) theory offers an experience-based account of typical and atypical spoken and written language acquisition. Recent work has provided initial support for this view, tying individual differences in SL abilities to linguistic skills, including language impairments. In the current article, we provide a critical review of studies testing SL abilities in participants with and without developmental dyslexia and specific language impairment and discuss the directions that this field of research has taken so far. We identify substantial vagueness in the demarcation lines between different theoretical constructs (e.g., “statistical learning,” “implicit learning,” and “procedural learning”) as well as in the mappings between experimental tasks and these theoretical constructs. Moreover, we argue that current studies are not designed to contrast different theoretical approaches but rather test singular confirmatory predictions without including control tasks showing normal performance. We end by providing concrete suggestions for how to advance research on SL deficits in language impairments.

统计学习 (SL) 理论提供了基于经验的典型和非典型口语和书面语言习得。最近的工作为这一观点提供了初步支持，将 SL 能力的个体差异与语言技能（包括语言障碍）联系起来。在本文中，我们对测试有和没有发育性阅读障碍和特定语言障碍的参与者的 SL 能力的研究进行了批判性回顾，并讨论了该研究领域迄今为止所采取的方向。我们发现不同理论结构（例如，“统计学习”、“内隐学习”和“程序学习”）之间的分界线以及实验任务与这些理论结构之间的映射存在很大的模糊性。而且，我们认为，当前的研究并非旨在对比不同的理论方法，而是测试单一的验证性预测，而不包括显示正常性能的控制任务。最后，我们就如何推进语言障碍中 SL 缺陷的研究提供具体建议。