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Abstract :
[en] Identifying specific language impairment (SLI) in polyglots or in children growing up in poverty is complex because it is often difficult to determine whether low language scores are attributable to reduced linguistic exposure or to the presence of a neurolinguistic deficit. This cross-cultural research presents data on different groups of children with an SLI diagnose in Luxembourg, Portugal, and Brazil who all speak Portuguese as their first language and were tested on the same battery of language (expressive/receptive vocabulary and syntactic comprehension) and executive function measures (verbal/visuo-spatial working memory, focused attention, and inhibitory suppression). In Luxembourg, 15 Portuguese-Luxembourgish bilingual 8-year-olds with an SLI diagnose (Bi-SLI) took part in the study. Their performance was compared to 35 typically developing Portuguese-Luxembourgish bilinguals from Luxembourg (Bi-TD) and to 35 typically developing monolinguals from Portugal (Ml-TD). Groups were matched on chronological age, socioeconomic status, and fluid intelligence and all children came from low income families. Results indicate that despite large differences in their language scores (Bi-SLI < Bi-TD < Ml-TD), the groups exhibited comparable performance on the measures of visuo-spatial working memory, focused attention, and inhibitory suppression. Group differences emerged on the verbal working memory measures with Bi-SLI children performing significantly less well than the bilingual and monolingual TD groups that manifested comparable performance. The data seems to suggest that executive function deficits in SLI are not domain general but limited to the verbal domain. Whether these findings extend to monolingual SLI children in Portugal and Brazil will be discussed.