This study analyzes quantitative and qualitative differences in errors made during a nonword repetition task between children with dyslexia (n = 75) and their typically developing (TD) peers (n = 75). Participants were auditorily presented with 16 nonwords based on a CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) pattern; nonwords varied from two to five syllables in length. Verbal responses were recorded, transcribed, and consonant phonemes were analyzed according to the following error types: substitutions, omissions, insertions, and transpositions. Analyses found that children with dyslexia perform more poorly on nonword repetition as compared to their TD peers. Specifically, during this nonword repetition task children with dyslexia differed from their TD peers in overall accuracy and omission errors. Groups did not differ in the quantity and quality of substitution, insertion, or transposition errors. Findings from this study may provide insight into mechanisms underlying phonological processing in children with dyslexia. Implications for future research and clinical work are also discussed.

Recent literature has suggested a link between verbal working memory and language impairment (LI) in children. There is limited research, however, about the link between verbal working memory and social behaviors in children with LI. This study was designed to explore the relationship between social behaviors (measured by the Teacher Behavior Rating Scale; Hart & Robinson, 1996) and verbal working memory abilities (measured by a 3-, 4-, and 5-syllable nonword repetition task) in children with LI. Thirty-six children (18 with LI and 18 typically developing) aged 7 to 11 years participated in the study. Children with LI were rated by teachers as having significantly higher levels of reticence and lower levels of likeability and prosocial behaviors compared to typically developing peers. Children with LI also scored significantly lower on the nonword repetition task at the 3- and 4-syllable levels. Regression analyses revealed that nonword repetition scores were significant predictors of reticence and prosocial behaviors when examining all children as a group, accounting for 22% and 42% of the variance, respectively. As nonword repetition performance increased, reticence ratings decreased and prosocial behavior ratings increased. Nonword repetition did not significantly predict ratings on reticence or prosocial behaviors when examining language groups separately. Nonword repetition was not a significant predictor of likeability for children in this study. These findings indicate a relationship between nonword repetition performance and social behaviors in children with and without LI.

Vid flertalet studier har det framkommit att ordförrådets storlek och förmågan till nonordsrepetition påvisar samband med nyordsinlärning. De prosodiska egenskapernas inverkan vid nyordsinlärning är emellertid inte lika studerad. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka hur barn mellan 4:5 och 6:0 år med typisk språkutveckling presterar på nyordsinlärning i relation till ordförråd och repetition av nonord samt att utforska vilken inverkan prosodiska egenskaper har på förmågan till nyordsinlärning. I studien deltog 15 barn vilkas resultat på nyorden, ordförrådstestningen och nonordsrepetitionen uträknades. Nyordsinlärningsuppgiften bestod av sex ord vilka sammankopplades med sex olika föremål. Nyorden matchades i par med avseende på en åtskiljande prosodisk egenskap mellan dem: antingen antal stavelser, betoning eller ordaccent. Inga signifikanta korrelationer mellan nyordsinlärning, ordförråd och nonordsrepetition kunde påvisas. Det framkom dock att korrelationen mellan ålder och nonordsrepetition var nära signifikans och indikerade att ökad ålder gav ett högre resultat på nonordsrepetitionen. Gällande de prosodiska egenskapernas relation till nyordsinlärning upptäcktes en signifikant skillnad i betoningsplacering, nyord med betoning på den finala stavelsen fick högst resultat. Barnen lärde sig också trestaviga ord i större utsträckning än tvåstaviga ord. Studien implicerar att betoning och ordlängd verkar ha viss betydelse för nyordsinlärning i kontrast till ordaccent, medan det inte kan påvisas några föreliggande korrelationer mellan nyordsinlärning, ordförråd och nonordsrepetition. / Several studies have shown that vocabulary size and nonword repetition ability correlate with novel word learning. The impact of prosodic features on novel word learning has, however, not been studied extensively. The purpose of this study was to examine how children aged 4:5–6:0 with typical language development perform on novel word learning, vocabulary and nonword repetition and to explore what impact prosodic features have on the ability to learn novel words. The study involved 15 children whose performance on the novel word learning task, vocabulary testing and nonword repetition was calculated. The novel word learning task consisted of six words which were connected to six different items. The novel words were matched in pairs differing by only one prosodic feature: either the number of syllables, stress or tonal word accent. No significant correlations between the novel word learning, vocabulary and nonword repetition were found. However, the correlation between age and nonword repetition reached near significance, which indicated that increased age gave a higher result on the nonword repetition. Regarding how the prosodic features related to the novel word learning, a significant difference between stress placements was detected. Novel words with stress on the final syllable were easier to learn. The children also achieved a higher result on the three syllable words than the two syllable words. The study implies that stress and word length seem to play a somewhat important role for novel word learning in contrast to tonal word accent, while it appears to be no relation between novel word learning, vocabulary and nonword repetition.

This study investigated whether or not variability in the severity of speech sound disorders is related to variability in phonological short-term memory and/or variability in the accuracy of phonological representations. The aim was to determine speech processing predictors of severity of speech sound disorders. A total of 33 children, aged three to six years of age, were assessed on measures of nonword repetition, accuracy of phonological representations, accuracy of speech production, and language. The tests administered included the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Preschool – 2 Australian, the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology, the Nonword Repetition Test (modified), and the Phonological Representation Judgement Task (modified). The relationships between the results of these tests were established using a correlation analysis. The relationship between accuracy of phonological representations and the percentage of consonants correct was found to be mediated by language. There was no significant relationship between nonword repetition and percentage consonants correct. These findings may have been the result of small sample size, age of the participants, or co-morbid language difficulties. These findings imply that variability in severity of speech sound disorders may be related to a variable not directly assessed in this study. This variable may be a constraint relating to the stored motor programs within children’s speech processing systems. Implications for future research are discussed.

As the population of Spanish-English bilingual children in the United States steadily grows, the importance of accurately assessing and diagnosing developmental language disorder (DLD) has also grown. Understanding a child's underlying language learning system is critical in this process. Several studies have demonstrated the efficacy of nonword repetition (NWR) tasks in bilingual children across a wide range of development, however there is little information regarding guidelines for interpretation of NWR performance or analyzing error patterns. This study was conducted to address these gaps in the research. A sample of 26 Spanish-English bilingual school aged children (6;0-9;4) were administered English and Spanish NWR, recalling sentences, and narrative tasks. Total errors, as well as errors of omission and substitution were examined across tasks, languages, and language group (typically developing-TD and developmental language disorder- DLD). Descriptive statistics revealed that DLD children made a higher number of errors across language tasks in Spanish and English than their TD peers. Group membership predicted total errors in the Spanish NWR task while controlling for age and language proficiency. Language proficiency was not a significant predictor for any of the error types above and beyond group membership. Therefore, when age and language input/output were controlled for, language ability was best predictor of the number of errors. Additionally, results showed stronger correlations between Spanish across all three language tasks in TD children and in English across two language tasks in DLD children. According to the results of the current study, total errors is the only effective error measure of language ability. However, looking at error patterns across language and language group can be informative regarding bilingual children's language learning systems. Future research should be conducted to repeat the study with a larger sample size and investigate the difference in error patterns between languages in TD and DLD children.

Nonword repetition (NWR) has demonstrated significant potential as a less-biased language assessment measure for dual language learners (DLLs). However, there are currently no available guidelines for the use of NWR in a clinical setting. The purpose of this preliminary study is to develop initial recommendations for the clinical use of NWR tasks by determining the diagnostic accuracy and optimal cut-off scores for two NWR tasks and scoring methods, and to evaluate the clinical feasibility of NWR as an assessment measure. Participants included 23 DLL students with and without language disorder between the ages of 6 and 8. Spanish and English NWR tasks were administered in school classrooms and scored by percent phonemes correct (PPC) and number of whole words correct. Optimal cut-off scores resulting in the best sensitivity and specificity were calculated for each task and scoring method. Diagnostic accuracy was then compared for each task, combination of tasks, and scoring method. English PPC, Spanish PPC, and combined whole word scores yielded acceptable levels of sensitivity and specificity. Combined PPC scores resulted in excellent specificity, but inadequate sensitivity. Whole word scores for the tasks individually did not approach acceptable diagnostic accuracy. The current findings suggest that NWR can be feasibly implemented in the clinical setting and yield accurate results. English-Spanish whole word scores show potential as an accurate assessment measure for DLL children but should be investigated further. English-Spanish PPC scores appear to be appropriate for ruling out a language disorder, but are insufficient for ruling one in. These results provide preliminary support for the use of NWR tasks in the clinical assessment of DLLs as well as initial recommendations for their administration and interpretation.

To address the needs of the growing number of Spanish-English bilingual children in the United States, Nonword Repetition (NWR) tasks were created to reduce testing bias in the assessment and diagnosis of children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Several studies have shown promising results in the use of NWR tasks; however, fewer studies have addressed questions such as the use of different scoring methods or analyzing error patterns. Thus, this study was conducted to address these gaps in the research. An English and a Spanish NWR task were administered to 26 Spanish-English bilingual school aged children (6;0-9;4). Two different scoring methods (percent phoneme correct and whole word scoring) were compared for diagnostic accuracy and the types and frequency of errors were analyzed. Both scoring methods showed statistically significant differences between groups (participants with DLD and those with typically developing language). Whole word scoring in Spanish had the best diagnostic accuracy, according to sensitivity, specificity, and likelihood ratio measures. However, due to the small number of nonwords that any participant repeated correctly, this may not be a clinically practical scoring method. The Spanish NWR task was a better measure than the English NWR task in identifying children with DLD, suggesting that Spanish NWR could be used to assess DLD in bilingual children. Participants with DLD produced more consonant, vowel, substitution, and omission errors than those with typically developing language. There was no difference between groups for addition errors. Significantly more omission errors were made in Spanish, likely due to the longer nonwords. The longer nonwords may be key in distinguishing between typically developing children and those with DLD. These results have the potential to inform future clinical practices in selecting, scoring, and analyzing NWR tasks.

Children with language impairment (LI) have notable social problems (Brinton & Fujiki, 2004). Research has shown that children with LI often have deficits in working memory (Kirchner & Klatsky, 1985; Stark, Poppen, & May, 1987). The relationship between working memory and social behaviors has not been clearly defined. This study examined this relationship in children with LI and typical age-matched peers by asking participants to repeat nine nonwords and correlating these results with social behaviors as rated by teachers. The Teacher Behavior Rating Scale (TBRS; Hart and Robinson, 1996) was used to compare social behaviors of 19 school-age children with LI to 19 age-matched peers with typically developing language skills. Social behaviors were divided into two categories, withdrawal and sociability. One subtype of withdrawal (reticence) and two subtypes of sociability (prosocial and likeability) were examined. Nonword repetition is a culturally nonbiased measurement of the ability to form phonological representation of nonwords in working memory (Edwards & Lahey, 1998). A modified version of Edwards and Lahey's nonword repetition task was used to assess working memory. Teachers rated children with LI as demonstrating higher levels of reticence and lower levels of both types of sociability than typical children. Children with LI performed poorer on the nonword repetition task at all syllable lengths (3-syllable, 4-syllable, and 5 syllable). Analyses of covariance were performed, including all participants, to identify if there were significant relationships between social behaviors and working memory. The results indicated that working memory was a significant factor for reticence, likeability, and prosocial behaviors. Regression analyses indicated that nonword repetition scores were significant predictors of reticence, accounting for 28% of the variance, likeability, accounting for 18% of the variance, and prosocial behaviors, accounting for 11% of the variance. As working memory increased, reticence decreased and both likeability and prosocial skills increased. Further analyses showed that only likeability was significantly influenced by language group and gender. Group specific analyses indicated that likeability was predicted by working memory for typical peers but not for children with LI. Working memory was also a stronger predictor of likeability for males than females.

No description available.

Få studier finns om små barns fonologiska förmåga relaterat till arbetsminne. Det råder också en brist på test av arbetsminne för små barn. Föreliggande studie syftade därför till att studera relationen mellan visuellt arbetsminne, fonologiskt arbetsminne och förmåga att hantera fonologiska representationer hos treåringar. Detta har gjorts genom att samla in jämförelsedata för treåringars resultat på det nyutvecklade surfplatte-testet KUBEN (Kognitiv utveckling hos små barn), som testar förmågorna visuellt och fonologiskt arbetsminne samt fonologisk diskrimination. Dessutom har test för fonologisk produktion, även det testat med hjälp av surfplatta, och nonordsrepetition använts. I studien deltog 91 treåriga svenska barn med typisk utveckling. För framför allt visuellt arbetsminne, fanns ett mycket litet underlag att jämföra med, men resultatet visade att barngruppen presterade som förväntat vad gäller samtliga testade förmågor. Förmågorna förbättrades med ökad ålder, däremot var kön och vana av surfplatta inte faktorer som påverkade barnens resultat. I resultatet beskrivs också samband mellan förmågorna. Det fanns samband mellan alla de förmågor som i denna studie mäter fonologiska representationer (fonologisk diskrimination, nonordsrepetition och fonologisk produktion). Däremot korrelerade dessa fonologiska förmågor inte med test för fonologiskt arbetsminne, vilket var ett mindre väntat resultat. En möjlig förklaring kan vara att det är svårt att separat testa fonologiskt arbetsminne hos barn så små som tre år. Inget samband förelåg heller mellan test av fonologiskt och visuellt arbetsminne, vilket dock indikerar att två olika arbetsminnesförmågor har testats. Detta styrker den falang inom forskningen som menar att visuellt och fonologiskt arbetsminne är separerade förmågor redan hos små barn. / There are few studies regarding phonological skills related to working memory in young children. There is also a lack of tests of working memory for children in the younger ages. The aim of the current study was therefore to examine the relationship between visual working memory, phonological working memory and the ability to manage phonological representations, in three-year-olds. This was done by collecting comparison data of threeyear- old children’s results on the newly developed tablet-test ”KUBEN” (Cognitive development in young children), which measures the abilities visual and phonological working memory and phonological discrimination. In addition test for phonological production, also tested with tablet, and nonword repetition were used. A total of 91 Swedish three-year-old children with typical development participated in the study. For especially visual working memory, there was a lack of material with which to compare, but the result showed that children performed as expected regarding all tested abilities. The abilities improved with increasing age. On the contrary, neither gender nor experience of using tablets, affected the results of the children’s performance. The result of this study further describes relations between the tested abilities. There were correlations between all the abilities in this study that measures phonological representations (phonological discrimination, nonword repetition and phonological production). However, these phonological abilities did not correlate with the test of phonological working memory, which is a less expected finding. A possible explanation may be that it is difficult to test phonological working memory separately in children as young as three years old. Neither was there a correlation between tests of phonological and visual working memory, which indicates that two different abilities of working memory were tested. This confirms the faction within research arguing that visual and phonological working memory are separated abilities, already in young children.