Oral Language Skills Moderate Nonword Repetition Skills in Children With Dyslexia: A Meta-Analysis of the Role of Nonword Repetition Skills in Dyslexia

Abstract

We present a meta-analysis reviewing studies that have focused on the relationship between dyslexia and nonword repetition. The results show that children with dyslexia have poorer nonword repetition skills when compared to both chronological-age and reading-level controls. However, the severity of the nonword repetition problem varies significantly between studies, and the most important predictor of this variability is oral language skills. We argue that the sizable explanatory value of oral language skills reflects sample variation in the rate of comorbidity between dyslexia and specific language disorders. Thus, samples with combined dyslexia and specific language disorders demonstrate the most severe nonword repetition problems.