# Developmental Course of Language Impairments, Attention Deficits, and their Co-occurrence

> **NIH NIH R01** · UTAH STATE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM--UNIVERSITY OF UTAH · 2021 · $324,063

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Both language impairments and attention deficits represent relatively common neurodevelopmental disorders.
Some reports indicate further that these two commons disorders might frequently co-occur as well. Accounts
for why language impairments and attention deficits occur at elevated rates have been largely speculative and
limited to data derived from case-control studies, leaving the nature and directions of association unknown. It is
also unclear whether co-occurring language impairment and attention deficit represents a different form or
separate sub-type of language disorder. The proposed study addresses these gaps by conducting parallel
investigations of language growth and behavioral symptom progressions in children with specific language
impairment (SLI), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), ADHD+SLI, and typical development (TD)
over a 4 year period (initial age: 7- 8-years). The specific aims of the project are (1) to determine if there are
significant differences between initial groups in their vocabulary, verbal memory, and syntactic growth
trajectories. (2): to determine if there are significant differences between groups in their ADHD and executive
function symptom progressions. (3): to determine if there are significant group differences in linguistic abilities
and behavioral symptoms across full siblings of children with SLI, ADHD, ADHD+SLI, and TD. The project is
uniquely positioned to document both risk factors that contribute to the development of new cases of
ADHD/SLI over the 7- to 11-year age span as well potential protective factors that contribute to improvements
in children's initial symptoms. Important innovations associated with the research strategy include the use of
clinical indices that have been vetted for threats of ambiguous symptoms, the collection of sibling data to
examine overlapping risks, and the consideration of pharmacological, behavioral, and language intervention
effects on individual outcomes. Experimental controls in place to strengthen internal validity and reproducibility
include regularly scheduled reliability and fidelity checks, blinded assessments at each time of measurement,
and group matching. The research proposed impacts upon several key public health concerns. SLI and ADHD
affect millions of student in the U.S. and both have been linked to long-term academic, interpersonal,
vocational, and health risk. Thus, from a public health perspective, even small efficiency gains in the
identification, differential diagnosis, and integrated management of these two common neurodevelopmental
disorders would translate into considerable societal benefit.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10194457
- **Project number:** 5R01DC017153-04
- **Recipient organization:** UTAH STATE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM--UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
- **Principal Investigator:** SEAN M REDMOND
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $324,063
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-07-10 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10194457

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10194457, Developmental Course of Language Impairments, Attention Deficits, and their Co-occurrence (5R01DC017153-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10194457. Licensed CC0.

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