Predictive processing and developmental language disorder
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Purpose Research in the cognitive and neural sciences has situated predictive processing-the anticipation of upcoming percepts-as a dominant function of the brain. The purpose of this article is to argue that prediction should feature more prominently in explanatory accounts of sentence processing and comprehension deficits in developmental language disorder (DLD). Method We evaluate behavioral and neurophysiological data relevant to the theme of prediction in early typical and atypical language acquisition and processing. Results Poor syntactic awareness-attributable, in part, to an underlying statistical learning deficit-is likely to impede syntax-based predictive processing in children with DLD, conferring deficits in spoken sentence comprehension. Furthermore, there may be a feedback cycle in which poor syntactic awareness impedes children's ability to anticipate upcoming percepts, and this, in turn, makes children unable to improve their syntactic awareness on the basis of prediction error signals. Conclusion This article offers a refocusing of theory on sentence processing and comprehension deficits in DLD, from a difficulty in processing and integrating perceived syntactic features to a difficulty in anticipating what is coming next.
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Children with DLD struggle to learn patterns in language, especially those related to syntax and morphology.
“children with DLD struggle to learn patterns in language, especially those related to syntax (i.e., the way words are put together to make sentences) and morphology (i.e., the structure of words)”
From Predictive coding in neuropsychiatric disorders: a systematic transdiagnostic review. (2025) · cites this paper as Jones and Westermann, 2021
The difficulty in learning language patterns in DLD may lead to an impairment in predicting upcoming parts of sentences, such as different word types, inflectional morphs, or complex sentence structures.
“which may lead to an impairment in predicting upcoming parts of sentences, such as different word types (e.g., nouns or verbs), inflectional morphs (e.g., sing, ed), or complex sentence structures (e.g., passive voice) (Jones and Westermann, 2021)”
From Predictive coding in neuropsychiatric disorders: a systematic transdiagnostic review. (2025) · cites this paper as Jones and Westermann, 2021
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Jones, S. D., & Westermann, G.
- Affiliations
- Lancaster University (GB)
- Venue
- Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
- Published
- 2021-01-14
- Volume
- 64
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 181-185
- ISSN
- 1092-4388 (ISSN-L)
- 1558-9102
- OpenAlex
- W3097073359
- Cited by
- 23
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 3.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Lancaster EPrints (Lancaster University) (submittedVersion)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Economic and Social Research Council (ES/S007113/1, ES/L008955/1, L008955/1)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
- Keywords
- predictive processing, specific language impairment, sentence comprehension, syntactic awareness, statistical learning, prediction error, language acquisition
- MeSH terms
- Brain, Child, Humans, Language, Language Development, Language Development Disorders, Comprehension
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