Abstract
Non-word (NW) repetition in children with specific language impairment (SLI) is a skill related to, but genetically separate from, grammatical ability. Prosodic structure of the syllables may bridge the gap between these two abilities. A NW repetition task was compared in a group of 15 preschool Italian children with SLI (ranged in age from 3;11 to 5;8) and 15 younger typically developing children (aged from 2;11 to 3;7) matched for mean length of utterance (TD-MLU). Grammatical ability was tested through a probe for direct-object clitic pronouns which is one of the most useful clinical markers in the Italian language. In NW repetition, children with SLI deleted more syllables than the TD-MLU children. The omission of weak syllables in a pre-stress position was a significant predictor of the omission of clitic pronouns. The present study shows that the link between grammar and NW is due to a prosodic characteristic that is more universally challenging in children with SLI.
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