Background and aims Recent research indicates that children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) often also score lower than their peers with typical development (TD) on tasks testing nonverbal executive functioning (EF). This study investigated whether there is evidence that children with DLD use linguistic and EF resources to support their lexical and syntactic development. Three questions were addressed: (1) How do children with DLD develop in the domains of lexicon and syntax, and how does their development compare to TD controls? (2) To what extent do children with DLD show reciprocal relations between lexical and syntactic skills, and how does this compare to TD controls? (3) Is EF ability related to DLD children’s lexical and syntactic skills, and how does this compare to TD controls? Methods Data from 117 children (NDLD = 78; NTD = 39) were collected three times with yearly intervals. At time 1, the children were 5 or 6 years old. Standardized receptive vocabulary and sentence repetition tests measured lexicon and syntax, respectively. Nonverbal EF tasks tested selective attention, interference control and working memory. Cross-lagged analyses were conducted to determine the direction of relationships. Results Both groups showed stable lexical and syntactic growth. In children with DLD, but not in TD controls, syntactic skills predicted lexical skills. In the DLD group, EF predicted lexical skills. Reversely, in the TD group, lexical skills predicted EF. Conclusions The results of this study are consistent with the hypothesis that the lexical development of children with DLD is supported by both their verbal abilities in the domain of syntax and their nonverbal EF abilities. Implications Interventions that improve the syntactic and EF abilities of children with DLD may have spreading effects and positively impact on word learning by children with DLD.

中文翻译：

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发展性语言障碍儿童的词汇和句法能力与执行功能的作用之间的相互关系

背景和目标最近的研究表明，在测试非语言执行功能（EF）的任务上，患有发育性语言障碍（DLD）的孩子的分数通常也比具有典型发育（TD）的同伴低。这项研究调查是否有证据表明DLD儿童使用语言和EF资源来支持他们的词汇和句法发展。解决了三个问题：（1）患有DLD的儿童在词汇和句法领域如何发展，与TD控件相比，他们的发展如何？（2）患有DLD的儿童在多大程度上表现出词汇和句法技能之间的相互关系？与TD控件相比，这又如何？（3）EF能力与DLD儿童的词汇和句法能力有关吗？这与TD控件相比如何？方法来自117名儿童的数据（NDLD = 78；NTD = 39），每年间隔收集三次。在时间1，孩子是5或6岁。标准化的接受词汇和句子重复测试分别测量了词典和语法。非语言EF任务测试了选择性注意，干扰控制和工作记忆。进行交叉滞后分析以确定关系的方向。结果两组的词法和句法都有稳定的增长。在患有DLD的儿童中，但在TD控件中则没有，句法技能可以预测词汇技能。在DLD组中，EF预测了词汇技能。相反，在TD组中，词汇技能可以预测EF。结论这项研究的结果与以下假设相吻合：DLD儿童的词汇发展受到语法领域的语言能力和非语言EF能力的支持。启示改善DLD儿童的句法和EF能力的干预措施可能会产生扩散效应，并对DLD儿童的单词学习产生积极影响。