Testing a Structural Equation Model of Language-based Cognitive Fitness

Development of language is taken for granted by most. Problems with language development can result in stress for the individual and family; there is a challenge in that the contemporary education system assumes children have appropriate skills when they begin school. The purpose of the study is to test a theoretical model oflanguage readiness, noted as language-based cognitive fitness, which includes measures associated with structural concepts of language involving receptive language, expressive language, spontaneous narrative speech, and writing fluency. The sample includes students from a private school who receive an extensive battery of tests at admission and annually thereafter. Scores from a variety of cognitive measures will be used in a structural equation modeling framework to test the model. Results demonstrate language-based cognitive fitness to be an interplay of verbal reasoning abilities, visual synthesis, and active analysis broadly representing receptive language, expressive language, spontaneous narrative expression, and writing fluency but not in the proposed hierarchical structure. The model was able to predict student achievement for students of challenged and average cognitive profiles. Implications for positive social change include an improved understanding of the language structures responsible for language deficits and how these relate to overall cognitive fitness; interventions can be provided to help children more quickly make up language deficits.