Abnormal attentional masking in children with specific language impairment

In order to become a proficient user of language, infants must detect temporal cues embedded within the noisy acoustic spectra of ongoing speech by rapid attentional engagement. According to the neuroconstructivist approach, a multi-sensory dysfunction of attentional engagement—hampering the rapid temporal sampling of stimuli—might be responsible for language deficits typically shown in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). In the present study, the efficiency of visual attentional engagement was investigated in 22 children with SLI and 22 typically developing (TD) children by measuring attentional masking (AM). AM refers to impaired identification of the first of two sequentially presented masked objects (O1 and O2) in which the O1-O2 interval was manipulated. Children with SLI showed a deeper AM and more sluggish AM recovery. Our results suggest that a multisensory engagement deficit—probably linked to a dysfunction of the right fronto-parietal attentional network—might impair language development.