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Pearson's EBP Briefs: Sleep Disorders as a Risk to Language Learning and Use

Pearson's EBP Briefs: Sleep Disorders as a Risk to Language Learning and Use
Karla K. McGregor, PhD, CCC-SLP, Rebecca Alper, PhD, CCC-SLP
April 21, 2016
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When we were speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in training—one many years ago, the other mere months ago—we were taught to include questions about sleep in diagnostic interviews. But we were never sure whether reports of sleep problems were meaningful to the clinical decision making at hand. What do sleep problems entail?  How does poor sleep affect language learning and use? When is a medical referral needed? This uncertainty prompted us to ask whether individuals with sleep disorders are at higher risk for language learning deficits than healthy sleepers. Our primary goal was to inform clinical protocol. 

Background Information

Two lines of evidence support a link between sleep and language learning. The first involves experimental manipulations of sleep intervals relative to learning intervals in the general population. In these experiments, sleep affected adults’ memory consolidation as demonstrated by enhanced retention of word forms (Drummond et al., 2000; Ficca, Lombardo, Rossi, & Salzarulo, 2000), stabilization of improvement in word recognition (Fenn, Nusbaum, & Margoliash, 2003), and integration of newly-learned words into the mental lexicon (Gaskell & Dumay, 2003). The effect of sleep on verbal learning and memory is not limited to adults nor is it exclusive to the lexical domain. Infants who slept after exposure to an artificial language derived abstract grammatical patterns; those who remained awake did not (Gómez, Bootzin, & Nadel, 2006). 


Karla K. McGregor, PhD, CCC-SLP

Karla McGregor conducts research on word learning and memory in children and adults who have developmental language impairments and other communication disorders. She teaches courses in the areas of childhood language impairment, evidence-based practice, and scientific writing.


Rebecca Alper, PhD, CCC-SLP

Rebecca is a post-doctoral fellow and licensed speech-language pathologist working with Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek on the Enhancing Communication Foundations project.  Rebecca completed her M.A., Ph.D. and a graduate certificate in Biostatistics at the University of Iowa, where she was a Presidential Fellow under the co-mentorship of Dr. Richard Hurtig and Dr. Karla McGregor.  Her research thus far has focused on the role of clinicians and caregivers as agents of early speech-language and pre-literacy intervention, with a focus on the impact of psychosocial factors on intervention gains.  Additionally, Rebecca is interested in research methodology and data analysis for speech-language research.



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