Phonological Analysis Facilitates Nonword Repetition in Young Children

Abstract

Nonword repetition (NWR) is often adopted as a measure of phonological storage (Gathercole, 2006). However, this task requires the ability to effectively process phonological information, which could be challenging for young children, whose phonological systems are still in development. This study proposes that in addition to phonological storage, phonological analysis constrains young children's NWR performance. Sixty 4-to 5-year-old children were tested on vocabulary size, productive phonology, phonological awareness, digit span, articulation rate, and NWR. Regression analyses revealed that productive phonology was the major predictor of NWR, while digit span made a minor contribution. Error analyses showed that the children's individual differences resided in their ability to encode nonwords into appropriate phonological units. The findings indicate that phonological analysis and phonological storage are the two major factors contributing to the children's performance in encoding novel forms. The recallers' phonological capacities, and the lexicality and the length of the stimuli determine the capacities reflected by NWR.