Treating verbal working memory in a boy with intellectual disability

Abstract

The present case study investigates the effects of a cognitive training of verbal working memory that was proposed for Davide, a 14-year-old boy diagnosed with mild intellectual disability. The program stimulated attention, inhibition, switching, and the ability to engage either in verbal dual tasks or in producing inferences after the content of a short passage had been encoded in episodic memory. Key elements in our program included (1) core training of target cognitive mechanisms; (2) guided practice emphasizing concrete strategies to engage in exercises; and (3) a variable amount of adult support. The study explored whether such a complex program produced “near transfer” effects on an untrained dual task assessing verbal working memory and whether effects on this and other target cognitive mechanisms (i.e., attention, inhibition, and switching) were long-lasting and produced “far transfer” effects on cognitive flexibility. The effects of the intervention program were investigated with a research design consisting of four subsequent phases lasting 8 or 10 weeks, each preceded and followed by testing. There was a control condition (phase 1) in which the boy received, at home, a stimulation focused on the visuospatial domain. Subsequently, there were three experimental training phases, in which stimulation in the verbal domain was first focused on attention and inhibition (phase 2a), then on switching and simple working memory tasks (phase 2b), then on complex working memory tasks (phase 3). A battery of neuropsychological tests was administered before and after each training phase and 7 months after the conclusion of the intervention. The main finding was that Davide changed from being incapable of addressing the dual task request of the listening span test in the initial assessment to performing close to the normal limits of a 13-year-old boy in the follow-up assessment with this test, when he was 15 years old.

Training Verbal Working Memory in Children with Mild Intellectual Disabilities: Effects on Problem-solving

“…Such training seems to generate remarkable enhancements especially in visual working memory though the effects tend to be medium-small in terms of effect size (Danielsson et al, 2015). Effects on verbal working memory as assessed by dual tasks asking both processing and memorization of verbal stimuliare rare (but see Costa, Purser, & Passolunghi, 2015;Orsolini, Melogno, Latini, Penge & Conforti, 2015;Söderqvist et al, 2012). Transfer effects of WM training to academic learning or everyday functioning are also rare (but see Bennett et al, 2013 andVan der Molen et al, 2010 ) whereas transfer to problem-solving and reasoning are not documented for children with ID.…”

Cognitive-motor dual-task ability of athletes with and without intellectual impairment

“…The tasks involved a fingertapping task and a verbal and nonverbal listening task. Orsolini, Melogno, Latini, Penge, and Conforti (2015) performed a case study with a 14-year-old boy with mild II, who changed from being incapable of addressing the DT request in the initial assessment to performing close to normal limits after a 2yr intensive training program. Another training study with a larger sample of 34 adolescents with moderate II (mean IQ = 45.15 ± 3.39) found positive effects of DT training on postural stability (Mikolajczyk & Jankowicz-Szymanska, 2015).…”