ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the development of short-term memory skills in children and impairments of these processes found in severe learning difficulties. The growth of memory span with age is often taken as evidence of a general increase in the ability to take in, hold, and handle information. More typical measures of short-term memory, such as the digit-span tests used in IQ batteries, use auditory presentation and immediate verbal recall. Hitch and Halliday looked at the word-length effect in groups of children aged 6, 8, and 10 years using both pictures and spoken words. The most successful explanation to date draws on the idea of an articulatory loop, as embodied in the working memory model. The Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA) has 12 sub-tests for different abilities related to language, including a digit span test. A better understanding of the short-term memory problems in severe learning difficulties might, it is hoped, shed light on these more general educational difficulties.
