Assessing serial order retention and its relationship with language in Spanish-speaking children aged four and five years / Evaluación de la retención del orden serial y su relación con el lenguaje en niños hispanohablantes de cuatro y cinco años

Abstract

The retention of serial order, a function of verbal Short-Term Memory (STM) and crucial in the processing of sequential information, is fundamental for early language acquisition. Few studies have explored this association between memory for serial order information and language development. This work focuses on the development of a Spanish Serial Order Reconstruction Task (SORT), adapted from a task originally designed to assess serial order retention capacity, and applied to Spanish-speaking children aged four and five (n = 84). Results show that SORT is appropriate for measuring serial order retention capacity in Spanish children of these ages and that this task is related to children’s phonological, lexical and grammatical abilities. Regression analyses indicate that serial order retention capacity remains a significant predictor for language acquisition even after controlling for the effects of phonological memory measures. This study provides initial evidence on the utility of the SORT for measuring the retention of serial order capacity which underlies language acquisition. Future studies will unveil the task's potential as a valuable tool in early education and clinical settings.