The relationship between listening comprehension and working memory in school-aged children

Lee, So Eun; Cho, Mi Ra; Lee, Yoon-Kyoung

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2010;15(1): 56-65.

So Eun Lee^` , Mi Ra Cho^` , and Yoon-Kyoung Lee^`

이소은(So Eun Lee)| 조미라(Mi Ra Cho)| 이윤경(Yoon-Kyoung Lee)

ABSTRACT

Background & Objectives
This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the listening comprehension of paragraphs and the working memory in school-aged children.
Methods
The participants were thirty of children, ten of first graders, ten of second graders, and ten of third graders. The ability of ‘listening comprehension of paragraphs was assessed using passage comprehension test, one of subtests of Language Scale for School-aged Children(Y. Lee, 2007). The ability of woking memory was measured by digit recall test of the K-WISC-III, non-word repetition task developed by authors, and the sentence repetition task(H. Lee, 2007).
Results
(1) The listening comprehension of paragraphs was significantly correlated with digit repetition and non-word repetition but sentence repetition. (2) The ability of listening comprehension of paragraphs were different between 1st and. 3rd graders, 2nd and 3rd graders significantly. And on the performance of digit repetition and non-word repetition tasks, significant differences were observed between 1st and 3rd graders.
Discussion & Conclusion
This study showed that the ability of listening comprehension of paragraphs and working memory were correlated significantly in lower grader elementary school students.