Auditory Psycholinguistic Abilities and Cognitive Performance in Children with Developmental Language Disorder

Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is characterized by persistent difficulties in language acquisition and use and is frequently accompanied by variability in cognitive performance. This study compared auditory psycholinguistic abilities and selected cognitive outcomes in children with DLD and typically developing (TD) peers and examined whether associations between these domains were robust within each group. Eighty Spanish-speaking children aged 7–9 years participated (40 DLD, 40 TD). Four auditory subtests of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities assessed auditory comprehension, auditory association, auditory integration, and auditory sequential memory. Age-scaled scores from selected WISC-V subtests represented verbal comprehension, working memory, fluid reasoning, and processing speed. Between-group differences were examined with independent-samples t tests and sensitivity analyses controlling for paternal education. Pearson correlations were supplemented by Spearman correlations and false-discovery-rate corrections. Children with DLD scored lower than TD peers on all auditory psycholinguistic and cognitive measures (Cohen’s d = 1.35–2.55). The between-group differences remained significant after accounting for paternal education; for auditory integration, significant differences were observed at both levels of paternal education despite a significant interaction. Three Pearson correlations reached nominal significance before correction, but none was replicated as statistically significant by Spearman analysis or survived correction for multiple testing. The findings therefore indicate broad between-group differences but limited evidence for stable within-group coupling between the auditory psycholinguistic and cognitive measures assessed. Comprehensive assessment should consider language-related and cognitive domains separately rather than assuming a single explanatory mechanism.