Implications of neurocognitive control mechanisms of executive functions in language acquisition and therapeutic intervention in children.

Abstract

Executive functions (EF), perceived as high-level neurocognitive operations, play an important role in organizing and programming the behaviors involved in a process of self-regulation of actions leading to a specific goal. Several authors in the field admit that there are three fundamental mechanisms, both distinct and interdependent, which make up these FEs, namely: inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility and working memory. Research on the development of EF and their maturation trajectory, as well as their role in influencing the development of language, has become a scientific priority in recent years. This article attempts to establish a state of knowledge about possible links between the three fundamental mechanisms and language acquisition in children. An approach to the pathological domain, expressed in developmental language disorder, is also proposed. Some therapeutic spinoffs in the field of neurocognitive remediation of developmental and language difficulties are presented as conclusion of this article.

This type of therapeutic intervention, or even of education and indoctrination, would result in more effective and lasting therapeutic results, and achieve extensions between one skill and another, or one job and another, in contrast to those usual therapeutic qualities, which are based on an inert indoctrination method, which does not involve the child in the therapeutic intervention or in the learning process, except as the receiver of information or a set of recommendations or behaviors, which are issued by the specialist or teacher in the form of advice and instructions.