Nonword Repetition Task Research Articles

The influence of language proficiency on language-based processing skills: evidence from Korean–English bilingual children

This preliminary study examined the influence of language proficiency on language-based processing tasks with bilingual children whose dominant language was their second language (L2). Nineteen Korean–English bilingual children were assessed on the Nonword Repetition Task (NRT) and the Korean Nonword Repetition Task (KNRT) an adapted form of the Competing Language Processing Task (CLPT-E) and a parallel form of this task in Korean (CLPT-K). The results were examined relative to scores from vocabulary and morphosyntax tests in both languages. Results show that NRT and KNRT scores were related across languages, but not to the vocabulary or mophosyntactic measures in either English or Korean. In contrast, the CLPT-E and the CLPT-K were not related across languages. Scores from CLPT-E were not related to vocabulary or morphosyntactic measures in English. However, scores from the CLPT-K were related to scores on the Korean vocabulary test. The CLPT-K Word Recall subtest scores were related to the KNRT. These results suggest that nonword repetition reflects a more general or cross-linguistic processing capacity and is less dependent upon language knowledge than the CLPTs. Finally, the results indicate that the use of only one language-based processing task in a single language does not adequately describe language-based processing for bilingual children.

Nonword Repetition in Spanish-Speaking Toddlers with and without Early Language Delays

Background/Aims: Nonword repetition (NWR) studies with English-speaking toddlers indicate favorable diagnostic accuracy for identifying early language delays and strong associations with early vocabulary. While scarce, studies of Spanish NWR have revealed strong diagnostic accuracy with preschool- and school-age children. This study aimed to (1) establish the association between Spanish NWR and early linguistic measures, (2) compare the Spanish NWR skills of typical Spanish-speaking toddlers and those of toddlers with early language delays (ELD), and (3) establish the diagnostic accuracy of a Spanish NWR task. Methods: Sixty-five Spanish-speaking toddlers were given a NWR task and a language assessment while parents completed a vocabulary checklist and reported their child's longest utterances. Results: NWR scores were moderately correlated with vocabulary and language. The ELD group had significantly lower NWR scores than peers, and 68% of the sample was classified correctly, with desirable sensitivity but inadequate specificity obtained. Conclusion: Findings from this study revealed developmental trends in Spanish-speaking toddlers' ability to repeat nonwords and that most toddlers were not able to repeat 4- and 5-syllable nonwords. Furthermore, Spanish-speaking children with ELD had more difficulties with NWR than typical peers. The diagnostic accuracy results indicated that the clinical use of a Spanish NWR task for toddlers can serve to detect early language-learning difficulties, especially if used as one of multiple diagnostic sources of information to establish ELD.

The Non-word Repetition Task as a clinical marker of Specific Language Impairment in Spanish-speaking children

Forty native Spanish-speaking children (age 8;0–10;3), 20 with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and 20 with Typical Language Development (TLD), received a battery of psycholinguistic tests, IQ, hearing screenings, and the Spanish Non-word Repetition Task (NRT). The children’s repetition of 20 non-words was scored. The percentage of correct non-words was significantly lower in children with SLI than in age-matched children with TLD. A length effect was found, with the subset of three-, four-, and five-syllable non-words leading to greater differences between groups. The NRT identified SLI accurately; likelihood ratios are reported with significant good sensitivity and specificity. Significant positive correlations were found, for all children together, between the overall NRT accuracy and the eight contemporary expressive/receptive language scores: PPVT-III, TTFC-2, and CEG tests; WISC-IV/Vocabulary subtest; and four ITPA subtests, including lexical fluency and comprehension of sentences/stories. The Spanish NRT can be used as a diagnostic marker for SLI. The clinical implications of phonological working memory links to psycholinguistic abilities are discussed.

Non-word repetition performance in Mandarin-speaking preschool children with and without specific language impairment (SLI)

AbstractChildhood is a critical period for language development, and it is of great importance to discover normal language development and any specific language impairment (SLI) in child language acquisition and then to give them timely diagnosis and treatment. Also it has been previously shown that the non-word repetition task is an efficient assessment tool to screen out those children suspected with SLI. Based on this premise, the present study examined whether the non-word repetition task can be a suitable screening tool to detect language disorders for preschool children in Mandarin Chinese in China. A non-word repetition task was adapted specifically for this purpose. This study examined differences in non-word repetition performance of Mandarin-speaking preschool children screened by a criterion-referenced diagnostic test of specific language impairment (SLI) (the value of Cronbach Alpha at 0.86). A sample of 282 children were administered the diagnostic test, and a total of 23 SLI suspects were screened out as their language ability measures deviated from the mean by 1.5 SDs. Results indicated that children with SLI made no error with respect to tone in Mandarin, but they showed great difficulty in non-word repetition skills compared to age-matched controls. The findings confirmed that the non-word repetition task is a culturally nonbiased index of language disorders, and that two syllable non-words can be used to identify language disorder.

The Influence of Phonotactic Probability on Nonword Repetition and Fast Mapping in 3-Year-Olds With a History of Expressive Language Delay.

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of phonotactic probability on sublexical (phonological) and lexical representations in 3-year-olds who had a history of being late talkers in comparison with their peers with typical language development. Ten 3-year-olds who were late talkers and 10 age-matched typically developing controls completed nonword repetition and fast mapping tasks; stimuli for both experimental procedures differed in phonotactic probability. Both participant groups repeated nonwords containing high phonotactic probability sequences more accurately than nonwords containing low phonotactic probability sequences. Participants with typical language showed an early advantage for fast mapping high phonotactic probability words; children who were late talkers required more exposures to the novel words to show the same advantage for fast mapping high phonotactic probability words. Children who were late talkers showed similar sensitivities to phonotactic probability in nonword repetition and word learning when compared with their peers with no history of language delay. However, word learning in children who were late talkers appeared to be slower when compared with their peers.

A Quasi-Universal Nonword Repetition Task as a Diagnostic Tool for Bilingual Children Learning Dutch as a Second Language.

This study evaluated a newly developed quasi-universal nonword repetition task (Q-U NWRT) as a diagnostic tool for bilingual children with language impairment (LI) who have Dutch as a 2nd language. The Q-U NWRT was designed to be minimally influenced by knowledge of 1 specific language in contrast to a language-specific NWRT with which it was compared. One hundred twenty monolingual and bilingual children with and without LI participated (30 per group). A mixed-design analysis of variance was used to investigate the effects of LI and bilingualism on the NWRTs. Receiver operating characteristic analyses were conducted to evaluate the instruments' diagnostic value. Large negative effects of LI were found on both NWRTs, whereas negative effects of bilingualism only occurred on the language-specific NWRT. Both instruments had high clinical accuracy in the monolingual group, but only the Q-U NWRT had high clinical accuracy in the bilingual group. This study indicates that the Q-U NWRT is a promising diagnostic tool to help identify LI in bilingual children learning Dutch as a 2nd language. The instrument was clinically accurate in both a monolingual and bilingual group of children and seems better able to disentangle LI from language disadvantage than more language-specific measures.

H εκτίμηση της φωνολογικής βραχύχρονης μνήμης σε Ελληνόφωνα παιδιά 2 και 3 ετών: στοιχεία για τη σχέση της με την ανάπτυξη της γλώσσας

Phonological working memory, as measured by the ‘non-word repetition’ task, has been associated with various dimensions of child language development. Although most studies have focused on ages older than 4 years, several successful attempts to measure phonological working memory in younger children are present in the bibliography. The aim of this study was to develop a non-word repetition task and methodology that would enable the assessment of phonological working memory in very young Greek-speaking children, as well as to explore the relationship between performance on this task and the linguistic level of the same children. Forty-two typically developing toddlers aged 2 and 3 years participated in a word & non-word repetition task which was especially developed for the purposes of this study. At the same time, a speech sample of the same children was collected, whereby the ‘number-of-different-words’ (word types) and the ‘mean length of utterance in morphemes' (MLU-m) have been estimated. Results reveal the sensitivity of the task in children's age, the stimulus type (words vs. non-words) and in syllabic length. Moreover, performance in this task appears significantly correlated with the two measures of children´s expressive language. These results are discussed in relation to previous findings and the possibilities this task could offer for the assessment of Greek-speaking young children’s language skills.

Non-word repetition task by young Japanese learners of English

This study identified the L2 sound processing problems of young Japanese EFL learners on articulatory production ability of English sounds, without intervention of lexical representation. A non-word repetition test was conducted based on the L1 English children’s speech processing system as proposed by Stackhouse and Wells (1997). 203 5th and 6th graders from a public elementary school in Tokyo participated in this study. Nine L1 English normally developing children participated in the test as a reference group. During the non-word repetition test, the participant children watched a native speaker of American Standard English on a computer monitor pronouncing 15 non-words ranging in length from one to three syllables and repeated each non-word following the NS model pronunciation. The recorded performances of the participants were judged by two experts in phonetics and phonology and a native speaker of English specializing in university-TESOL. There was no significant difference between the three judges in perceptual rating (p >.05). An ANOVA showed a significant difference between the Japanese children and the L1 English children in the total score of the repetition test. The difficulty of the item analysis, however, revealed a tendency in both Japanese and L1 English children in articulating each syllable.

Speech perception and production in sequential bilingual children: A longitudinal study

The majority of bilingual speech development research has focused on children who acquire both languages simultaneously from birth. Yet, for many bilingual children growing up in dense immigrant communities, their language experience is typically very different. These children, often referred to as sequential bilinguals, are initially exposed to their heritage language (L1) and in many cases are only immersed in the host country’s language (L2) when they start school at around 4-years-old. To date, little is known about the developmental trajectory of sequential bilinguals. The current study tracked the acquisition of the English voicing contrast and monophthongal vowels by Sylheti-English sequential bilingual children from the London-Bengali community. Children were tested during preschool (mean age: 54 months old) and again one year later. The sequential bilinguals perception and production was initially driven by their L1 experience, resulting in less refined English phonemic categories than their monolingual peers. With L2 experience, children acquired the target phonemic contrasts, however they displayed a preference Sylheti phonotactics in a non-word repetition task. These findings have implications for our understanding of language development in complex multilingual settings, and will be discussed in light of the children’s language input and broader phonological development.

The relationship between phonological short-term memory, receptive vocabulary, and fast mapping in children with specific language impairment.

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) often experience word-learning difficulties, which are suggested to originate in the early stage of word learning: fast mapping. Some previous research indicates significantly poorer fast mapping capabilities in children with SLI compared with typically developing (TD) counterparts, with a range of methodological factors impacting on the consistency of this finding. Research has explored key issues that might underlie fast mapping difficulties in children with SLI, with strong theoretical support but little empirical evidence for the role of phonological short-term memory (STM). Additionally, further research is required to explore the influence of receptive vocabulary on fast mapping capabilities. Understanding the factors associated with fast mapping difficulties that are experienced by children with SLI may lead to greater theoretically driven word-learning intervention. To investigate whether children with SLI demonstrate significant difficulties with fast mapping, and to explore the related factors. It was hypothesized that children with SLI would score significantly lower on a fast mapping production task compared with TD children, and that phonological STM and receptive vocabulary would significantly predict fast mapping production scores in both groups of children. Twenty-three children with SLI (mean = 64.39 months, SD = 4.10 months) and 26 TD children (mean = 65.92 months, SD = 2.98) were recruited from specialist language and mainstream schools. All participants took part in a unique, interactive fast-mapping task whereby nine novel objects with non-word labels were presented and production accuracy was assessed. A non-word repetition test and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Fourth Edition (PPVT-IV) were also administered as measures of phonological STM capacity and receptive vocabulary, respectively. Results of the fast-mapping task indicated that children with SLI had significantly poorer fast mapping production scores than TD children. Scores from the non-word repetition task were also significantly lower for the SLI group, revealing reduced phonological STM capacity. Phonological STM capacity and receptive vocabulary emerged as significant predictors of fast mapping performance when the group data were combined in a multiple regression analysis. These results suggest that the word-learning difficulties experienced by children with SLI may originate at the fast mapping stage, and that phonological STM and receptive vocabulary significantly predict fast mapping ability. These findings contribute to the theoretical understanding of word-learning difficulties in children with SLI and may inform lexical learning intervention.

The Optical Examination of Cortical Activity Associated with Speech-motor Control in Children and Adults who Stutter

Adults who stutter (AWS) show robust over-activation of right hemisphere structures during speech production relative to adults who do not stutter (AWNS). This is well documented in the fMRI literature in stuttering. These differences are often interpreted as risk factors for the development of stuttering, however, it remains unclear whether differences in brain activity reflect neural substrates related to the cause of stuttering or plastic changes resulting from a lifetime of stuttering. Few investigations of neural activity underlying speech-motor production in stuttering have distinguished speech motor planning from execution, nevertheless, there is evidence indicating altered planning and execution in AWS relative to AWNS (Chang et al., 2009; Lu et al., 2010). The neural activity of speech motor control in children who stutter (CWS) relative to children who do not stutter (CWNS) is not well documented. Near-Infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) allows the non-invasive acquisition of cortical activity using paradigms that are appropriate for use with children. Using NIRS the cortical activity related to speech motor planning and execution will be examined during two production tasks: a Go/noGo picture identification task and a nonword repetition task in pre-school CWS, school-aged CWS, AWS and age matched peers. The go/noGo task is designed to elucidate speech motor execution. The participants view a picture for 1500ms after which the colour of the picture's border changes to indicate whether or not the child should produce the object's label. This is a covert/overt naming task whereby the participant is unaware whether he will be required to produce speech. The planning of speech motor events is similar across covert and overt conditions. Therefore, by subtracting the cortical activity associated with covert naming from that required for overt naming the remaining cortical activity will be related to execution of speech motor events. The nonword repetition task is designed to elucidate speech motor planning. Participants hear nonwords of various lengths including one syllable (1SYL), three syllables (3SYL) and one syllable nonwords thrice repeated (1SYLx3). Participants are instructed to immediately repeat the nonword. The contrast between the cortical activities generated by 1SYL and 1SYLx3 indexes an increase in motor execution but not motor planning. Whereas the contrast between the cortical activity generated by the SYL3 relative to 1SYLx3 indexes an increase in motor planning but not execution. Comparing the indices of motor planning and motor execution will provide information describing differences in cortical activity that distinguish fluent from stuttering groups. This abstract is developed from ongoing research as part of the first author's dissertation. Results will be presented (at the time of writing we have unanalysed results from three participants).Regarding feedback from the panellists, I am specifically interested in hearing the following:1 – General feedback regarding the paradigm for examining speech motor control.2 – Alternative ways to explore the cortical activity underlying speech motor control.3 – Potential ways to capture the cortical activity for language processing along with indices of speech motor control.4 – The use of NIRS in the acquisition of non-speech motor control data in AWS and CWS.

Non-word repetition in 2-year-olds: Replication of an adapted paradigm and a useful methodological extension

Accurate non-word repetition (NWR) has been largely attributed to phonological memory, although the task involves other processes including speech production, which may confound results in toddlers with developing speech production abilities. This study is based on Hoff, Core and Bridges’ adapted NWR task, which includes a real-word repetition (RWR) condition. We tested 86 typically developing 2-year-olds and found relationships between NWR and both receptive and expressive vocabulary using a novel measure that controls for speech production by comparing contextually matched targets in RWR. Post hoc analyses demonstrated the influence of lexical and sublexical factors in repetition tasks. Overall, results illustrate the importance of controlling for speech production differences in young children and support a useful methodological approach for testing NWR.

The impact of attentional allocation capacities on nonword repetition in children with specific language impairment

This study aimed at directly assessing the hypothesis that attentional allocation capacity influences poor nonword repetition (NWR) performances in children with specific language impairment (SLI), using an attention demanding visual search task given concurrently with the NWR task. Twenty-one children with SLI, 21 typically developing children matched on age and 21 typically developing children matched on nonword span performed an immediate serial recall task of nonwords. The nonword lists were presented either alone or concurrently with the visual search task. Overall, results revealed a resource-sharing trade-off between the two tasks. Children with SLI were affected to the same extent as their span-matched controls by the necessity to allocate their attentional resources between the two tasks. Interestingly, nonword processing strategies seemed to differ among groups: age-matched controls allocated a larger part of their attentional resources to the encoding stage, whereas nonword recall was more attention demanding in children with SLI and younger controls.

Language exposure in bilingual toddlers: performance on nonword repetition and lexical tasks.

The amount of language exposure is correlated with bilingual lexical development, but findings are mixed on how exposure relates to nonword repetition (NWR), a complex skill involving both short-term processing and long-term vocabulary knowledge. We extend previous work to a younger age group by investigating the role of exposure on NWR versus vocabulary, along with the effect of item construction and scoring. Sixty typically developing children (ages 2;5-3;6[years;months]) were assessed for NWR and receptive and expressive vocabulary. Participants ranged in amount of previous exposure to English and French from 0% to 100% and were tested in both languages if able to participate, even with very limited exposure (28 completed testing in both languages, 11 completed testing in English only, 21 completed testing in French only). Correlational analyses showed moderate to strong associations between the amount of exposure and vocabulary in that language, whereas the relationship of exposure with NWR was weak or nonsignificant, depending on scoring method. NWR correlated with vocabulary in English only. Performance on NWR was affected by nonword length but unaffected by wordlikeness. NWR and vocabulary were differently related to language exposure. The underlying mechanisms of NWR at this age appeared mainly reliant on short-term processes, in contrast to long-term vocabulary knowledge.

Nonword repetition and phoneme elision in adults who do and do not stutter: Vocal versus nonvocal performance differences

PurposeThe purpose of the present study was to enhance our understanding of phonological working memory in adults who stutter through the comparison of nonvocal versus vocal nonword repetition and phoneme elision task performance differences. MethodFor the vocal nonword repetition condition, participants repeated sets of 4- and 7-syllable nonwords (n=12 per set). For the nonvocal nonword repetition condition, participants silently identified each target nonword from a subsequent set of three nonwords. For the vocal phoneme elision condition, participants repeated nonwords with a target phoneme eliminated. For the nonvocal phoneme elision condition, participants silently identified the nonword with the designated target phoneme eliminated from a subsequent set of three nonwords. ResultsAdults who stutter produced significantly fewer accurate initial productions of 7-syllable nonwords compared to adults who do not stutter. There were no talker group differences for the silent identification of nonwords, but both talker groups required significantly more mean number of attempts to accurately silently identify 7-syllable as compared to 4-syllable nonwords. For the vocal phoneme elision condition, adults who stutter were significantly less accurate than adults who do not stutter in their initial production and required a significantly higher mean number of attempts to accurately produce 7-syllable nonwords with a phoneme eliminated. This talker group difference was also significant for the nonvocal phoneme elision condition for both 4- and 7-syllable nonwords. ConclusionPresent findings suggest phonological working memory may contribute to the difficulties persons who stutter have establishing and/or maintaining fluent speech.Educational Objectives: (a) Readers can describe the role of phonological working memory in planning for and execution of speech; (b) readers can describe two experimental tasks for exploring the phonological working memory: nonword repetition and phoneme elision; (c) readers can describe how the nonword repetition and phoneme elision skills of adults who stutter differ from their typically fluent peers.

Object Clitic Omission in Child Spanish: Evaluating Representational and Processing Accounts

This study explores the widely documented difficulty children have with object clitics in the acquisition of Romance languages. It reports on two experiments: a production task and a comprehension task. Results from the elicitation task confirm that object omission occurs at nonnegligible rates in 2- and 3-year-olds. Findings from the sentence-picture matching task show that children do not sanction a grammar with referential null objects, as suggested by previous research, and that children do not always assign a transitive interpretation to clitic constructions. Further analysis reveals that both the frequency of object omissions in production as well as the results in the clitic conditions of the receptive task are strongly negatively correlated with an independent measure of verbal working memory (nonword repetition task), consistent with the hypothesis that object clitic omission is affected by linguistic processing and short-term memory limitations.

Acceleration in the bilingual acquisition of phonological structure: Evidence from Polish–English bilingual children

This study examines the production of consonant clusters in simultaneous Polish–English bilingual children and in language-matched English monolinguals (aged 7;01–8;11). Selection of the language pair was based on the fact that Polish allows a greater range of consonant clusters than English. A nonword repetition task was devised in order to examine clusters of different types (obstruent-liquid vs. s + obstruent) and in different word positions (initial vs. medial), two factors that play a significant role in repetition accuracy in monolingual acquisition (e.g., Kirk & Demuth, 2005). Our findings show that bilingual children outperformed monolingual controls in the word initial s + obstruent condition. These results indicate that exposure to complex word initial clusters (in Polish) can accelerate the development of less phonologically complex clusters (in English). This constitutes significant new evidence that the facilitatory effects of bilingual acquisition extend to structural phonological domains. The implications that these results have on competing views of phonological organisation and phonological complexity are also discussed.

Nonword repetition in children with cochlear implants: a potential clinical marker of poor language acquisition.

Cochlear implants (CIs) can facilitate the acquisition of spoken language for deaf children, but challenges remain. Language skills dependent on phonological sensitivity are most at risk for these children, so having an effective way to diagnose problems at this level would be of value for school speech-language pathologists. The goal of this study was to assess whether a nonword repetition (NWR) task could serve that purpose. Participants were 104 second graders: 49 with normal hearing (NH) and 55 with CIs. In addition to NWR, children were tested on 10 measures involving phonological awareness and processing, serial recall of words, vocabulary, reading, and grammar. Children with CIs performed more poorly than children with NH on NWR, and sensitivity to phonological structure alone explained that performance for children in both groups. For children with CIs, 2 audiological factors positively influenced outcomes on NWR: being identified with hearing loss at a younger age and having experience with wearing a hearing aid on the unimplanted ear at the time of receiving a 1st CI. NWR scores were better able to rule out than to rule in such language deficits. Well-designed NWR tasks could have clinical utility in assessments of language acquisition for school-age children with CIs.

Associations among nonword repetition and phonemic and vocabulary awareness: Implications for intervention

Prior research has shown possible relations among nonword repetition (NWR), vocabulary, and phonological processing skills in children with and without language impairment. This study was designed to investigate whether relationships would differ for students with primary language impairment (PLI) and typical language (TL) and whether they would shift across the school-age years, with implications for setting intervention priorities. NWR performance was compared for school-age students with PLI ( n = 36) and TL ( n = 36), matched for age, sex, race/ethnicity, and home language experience at three grade level bands (grades 1–2, 3–5, and 6–12). Both groups also completed tests of vocabulary awareness and phonological awareness to investigate them as predictors of performance on the NWR task. The two groups differed significantly with large effect sizes on the NWR task, as well as on vocabulary awareness and phonological awareness tasks. Regression analyses supported different predictive models for students with TL and PLI, with vocabulary awareness predicting significant variance in NWR for the TL students, but not for those with PLI. Conversely, phonological awareness, but not vocabulary awareness, predicted NWR for the students with PLI. Controlling for age did not change the regression models. Results support a view that phonological processing difficulties may function as a specific limiting factor for students with PLI, influencing their ability to learn new vocabulary as well as vice versa. These results have implications for designing treatment aimed explicitly at helping children connect sublexical aspects of word structure knowledge with word meaning.

A Pilot Study Comparing Two Nonword Repetition Tasks for Use in a Formal Test Battery

Two sets of nonwords (with and without true morphemes) were compared for their ability to differentiate students in Grades 1 through 12 with and without language impairment (36 each; N = 72) on a nonword repetition task. Results indicated that either nonword type could contribute to differential diagnosis.