Leeds Centre for Interdisciplinary Childhood and Youth Research (L-CYR) Autumn 2017 Seminar Series

Dr Lynne Duncan (University of Dundee) Socioeconomic status, language and executive function: what are the developmental links?
Dr Lynne Duncan is a senior lecturer in Psychology at the University of Dundee. Her research work focusses on developmental dyslexia and early language development. Dr Duncan's current research takes a cross-linguistic perspective on language development in relation to visual world recognition and developmental dyslexia.
Executive functions (EF) have been found to be related to pragmatic skills and fluidity in expression among pre-schoolers. The presentation will focus on a longitudinal investigation examining the developmental links between EF and language among nursery children from a range of social backgrounds. Participants were 48 monolingual English-speaking children from early years classrooms. They were aged three years at the start of the study and were followed throughout their nursery school education. Socio-economic status (SES) was assessed using the Scottish Multiple Deprivation Index. The CELF-Preschool 2 was used to measure pragmatic, receptive and expressive language skills together with BAS II assessments of verbal and non-verbal ability. EF comprised tests of flexibility, inhibition and working memory. After controls for age and non-verbal ability, SES groups scored similarly on pragmatic skills and receptive language but differed on expressive language. Across SES, all language measures including pragmatic skills correlated with working memory, and receptive language was additionally related to inhibition. Findings will be discussed in relation to theories about the links between EF and pre-school language development, and the influence of SES on the course of this sequence will be considered
Refreshments provided