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

2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (6) ◽  
pp. 1747-1760 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tessel Boerma ◽  
Shula Chiat ◽  
Paul Leseman ◽  
Mona Timmermeister ◽  
Frank Wijnen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Diagnostic Tool ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Diagnostic Value ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Clinical Accuracy ◽  
Group A ◽  
Bilingual Group ◽  
Repetition Task

Purpose 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. Method 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. Results 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. Conclusions 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.

Nonword Repetition in Bilingual Assessment: A Guide to Clinical Application

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
José A. Ortiz
Keyword(s):  
Diagnostic Accuracy ◽  
Clinical Application ◽  
Diagnostic Tool ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Alternative Assessment ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Bilingual Assessment ◽  
Method Of Assessment

Purpose: Nonword repetition (NWR) is a useful tool in the identification of language impairment in bilingual children. As a method of alternative assessment, the task is less biased than many traditional forms of assessment. Despite its potential utility, the use of NWR in language assessment is limited. The goal of this tutorial is to provide speech-language pathologists with the information needed to use NWR as a diagnostic tool in bilingual assessment by describing research into its diagnostic accuracy and considerations for clinical application. Conclusions: NWR is a useful diagnostic tool in bilingual language assessment when used as part of an assessment battery. Although its diagnostic accuracy limits its ability to be used in the absence of other tools, it can provide valuable information that can be used to strengthen clinical impressions. When using NWR measures, clinicians should take several important aspects in account, including the language and age for which it was intended, the type of stimuli included, and the scoring procedures. Clinicians who work with bilingual children should consider including NWR in their diagnostic toolkits, as a less biased method of assessment.

What do monolingual and bilingual children with and without SLI produce when phonology is too complex?

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laetitia de Almeida ◽  
Sandrine Ferré ◽  
Marie-Anne Barthez ◽  
Christophe dos Santos
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Repetition Task

In this study, the authors compare the production of internal codas and branching onsets in four groups of children learning French: monolingual typically-developing children ( n = 12), bilingual typically-developing children ( n = 61), monolingual children with Specific Language Impairment ( n = 17) and bilingual children with Specific Language Impairment ( n = 20). Their elicited productions were collected using a nonword repetition task (LITMUS-NWR-French), containing 71 nonwords with different syllable types. Except for typically-developing monolingual children, all children performed significantly better on branching onsets than on internal codas. Moreover, the repair strategies used in erroneous productions also indicate that children had more difficulties with internal codas: all the cases of metathesis affecting a target internal coda resulted in the production of a branching onset whereas the contrary was not observed. The differences in the rates of target-like production and the patterns of metathesis of these two structures suggest that internal codas are more difficult than branching onsets for children learning French.

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

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 713-725 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARCO TAMBURELLI ◽  
EIRINI SANOUDAKI ◽  
GARY JONES ◽  
MICHELLE SOWINSKA
Keyword(s):  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Consonant Clusters ◽  
Phonological Structure ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Phonological Complexity ◽  
Repetition Task ◽  
Selection Of

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 and Child Language Impairment

1998 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 1136-1146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Dollaghan ◽  
Thomas F. Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Language Intervention ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Language Test ◽  
Likelihood Ratios ◽  
Language Tests ◽  
Traditional Language ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Repetition Task

A brief, processing-dependent, nonword repetition task, designed to minimize biases associated with traditional language tests, was investigated. In Study 1, no overlap in nonword repetition performance was found between a group of 20 school-age children enrolled in language intervention (LI) and a group of 20 age-matched peers developing language normally (LN). In Study 2, a comparison of likelihood ratios for the nonword repetition task and for a traditional language test revealed that nonword repetition distinguished between children independently identified as LI and LN with a high degree of accuracy, by contrast with the traditional language test. Nonword repetition may have considerable clinical utility as a screening measure for language impairment in children. Information on the likelihood ratios associated with all diagnostic tests of language is badly needed.

scholarly journals Nonword Repetition and Sentence Imitation as Clinical Markers for Primary Language Impairment in bilingual French-English- and English-French-speaking children in Northern Ontario

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 61-69
Author(s):  
Sara Dubreuil-Piché ◽  
Jenna Lachance ◽  
Chantal Mayer-Crittenden
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Primary Language ◽  
Clinical Markers ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Sentence Imitation ◽  
Primary Language Impairment

Studies indicate that nonword repetition and sentence imitation are useful tools when assessing bilingual children. Bilingual children with primary language impairment (PLI) typically score lower on these two tasks than their typically developing counterparts. Studies show that bilingual children are not disadvantaged during nonword repetition if they have limited language exposure. However, since sentence imitation tasks are constructed with words from the target language, it is expected that it would be more influenced by previous language exposure. The goal of this article will be to review the influence of bilingual exposure on both tasks. This review provides the theoretical background for future studies that will compare the accuracy of both tasks when identifying PLI in bilingual children.

Cognitive Control along the Language Spectrum: From the Typical Bilingual Child to Language Impairment

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (04) ◽  
pp. 256-271
Author(s):  
Klara Marton ◽  
Thorfun Gehebe ◽  
Lia Pazuelo
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Interference Control ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Control Functions ◽  
Language Deficit

AbstractCognitive control refers to the ability to perform goal-directed behaviors in the presence of other compelling actions or in the face of habitual practices. Cognitive control functions play a critical role in children's language processing and literacy development. In recent years, many clinicians have expanded their assessment and treatment to target specific cognitive skills. Our goal is to provide a review of recent findings on cognitive control functions in children with different language status (i.e., monolingual and bilingual children with and without language impairment). While children with language impairment show performance deficits in specific cognitive functions (e.g., working memory updating and interference control), typically developing bilingual children often outperform their monolingual peers in cognitive control tasks. However, the relationship between bilingualism and cognitive control has been controversial. Several factors that influence these variations are discussed. Given the findings on the joint impact of bilingualism and language impairment on cognitive control functions, we identify conditions in which bilingualism attenuates the negative effects of the language deficit and conditions in which language impairment has a stronger effect than bilingualism. Critical issues of bilingual assessment, suggestions, and future directions are discussed.

scholarly journals Nonword repetition depends on the frequency of sublexical representations at different grain sizes: evidence from a multi-factorial analysis

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakub M. Szewczyk ◽  
Marta Marecka ◽  
Shula Chiat ◽  
Zofia Wodniecka
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Phonological Processing ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Phonotactic Probability ◽  
Grain Sizes ◽  
Comprehensive Examination ◽  
Phonological Complexity ◽  
Repetition Task

The nonword repetition task (NWR) has been widely used in basic cognitive and clinical research, as well as in clinical assessment, and has been proposed as a clinical marker for Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Yet the mechanisms underlying performance on this task are not clear. This study offers insights into these mechanisms through a comprehensive examination of item-related variables identified in previous research as possibly contributing to NWR scores and through testing the predictive power of each in relation to the others. A unique feature of the study is that all factors are considered simultaneously. Fifty-seven typically developing children were tested with a NWR task containing 150 nonwords differing in length, phonotactic probability, lexical neighbourhood, and phonological complexity. The results indicate that phonological processing of novel words draws on sublexical representations at all grain sizes and that these representations are phonological, unstructured and insensitive to morphemehood. We propose a novel index – mean ngram frequency of all phonemes – that best captures the extent to which a nonword draws on sublexical representations. The study demonstrates the primacy of sublexical representations in NWR performance with implications for the nature of the deficit in SLI.

How do bilingual dyslexic and typically developing children perform in nonword repetition? Evidence from a study on Italian L2 children

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 884-896
Author(s):  
Maria Vender ◽  
Denis Delfitto ◽  
Chiara Melloni
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
School Aged Children ◽  
Repetition Task

AbstractNonword repetition is typically impaired in dyslexia. Conversely, native-like performance is early achieved by bilingual children whose second language has a simple phonotactic system, like Italian. Our study aimed at comparing the performance of monolingual and bilingual children with and without dyslexia in a nonword repetition task modeled after Italian. We assessed nonword repetition in 111 school-aged children: 24 Italian L2 bilingual dyslexics, 24 Italian monolingual dyslexics, 30 Italian L2 bilingual controls and 33 Italian monolingual controls. We administered an original task composed of 40 nonwords ranging from two to five syllables; the complexity of the syllables was also manipulated. Results showed that both groups of dyslexics underperformed controls at each syllable length. No differences were found between monolingual and bilingual controls. Conversely, bilingual dyslexics underperformed monolingual dyslexics only with four-syllable nonwords. The possible use of nonword repetition tasks to assist in the identification of dyslexia in bilingual children is also discussed.

Using Nonword Repetition to Identify Language Impairment in Bilingual Children: A Meta-Analysis of Diagnostic Accuracy

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
José A. Ortiz
Keyword(s):  
Diagnostic Accuracy ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Eligibility Criteria ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Meta Regression Analysis ◽  
Word Search ◽  
Meta Analyses

Purpose Nonword repetition has been endorsed as a less biased method of assessment for children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, but there are currently no systematic reviews or meta-analyses on its use with bilingual children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate diagnostic accuracy of nonword repetition in the identification of language impairment (LI) in bilingual children. Method Using a key word search of peer-reviewed literature from several large electronic databases, as well as ancestral and forward searches, 13 studies were identified that met the eligibility criteria. Studies were evaluated on the basis of quality of evidence, design characteristics, and reported diagnostic accuracy. A meta-regression analysis, based on study results, was conducted to identify task characteristics that may be associated with better classification accuracy. Results Diagnostic accuracy across studies ranged from poor to good. Bilingual children with LI performed with more difficulty on nonword repetition tasks than those with typical language. Quasi-universal tasks, which account for the phonotactic constraints of multiple languages, exhibited better diagnostic accuracy and resulted in less misidentification of children with typical language than language-specific tasks. Conclusions Evidence suggests that nonword repetition may be a useful tool in the assessment and screening of LI in bilingual children, though it should be used in conjunction with other measures. Quasi-universal tasks demonstrate the potential to further reduce assessment bias, but extant research is limited.

Using Nonword Repetition to Identify Developmental Language Disorder in Monolingual and Bilingual Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Salomé Schwob ◽  
Laurane Eddé ◽  
Laure Jacquin ◽  
Mégane Leboulanger ◽  
Margot Picard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Effect Size ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Diagnostic Value ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Language Therapy ◽  
Language Background

Purpose A wealth of studies has assessed the diagnostic value of the nonword repetition task (NWRT) for the detection of developmental language disorder (DLD) in the clinical context of speech and language therapy, first in monolingual children and, more recently, in bilingual children. This review article reviews this literature systematically and conducts a meta-analysis on the discriminative power of this type of task in both populations. Method Three databases were used to select articles based on keyword combinations, which were then reviewed for relevance and methodological rigor based on internationally recognized checklists. From an initial pool of 488 studies, 46 studies were selected for inclusion in the systematic review, and 35 of these studies could be included in a meta-analysis. Results Most of the articles report significant discrimination between children with and without DLD in both monolingual and bilingual contexts, and the meta-analysis shows a large mean effect size. Three factors (age of the child, linguistic status, and language specificity of the task) yielded enough quantitative data for further exploration. Subgroups analysis shows variance in effect sizes, but none of the three factors, neither their interactions, were significant in a metaregression. We discuss how other, less explored factors (e.g., nature of the stimuli, scoring methods) could also contribute to differences in results. Sensitivity and specificity analyses reported in 33 studies confirmed that, despite possible effect size differences, the diagnostic accuracy of the NWRT is generally near thresholds considered to be discriminatory. It generally increases when it is combined with other tasks (e.g., parental questionnaire). Conclusions This review indicates that the NWRT is a promising diagnostic tool to identify children with DLD in monolingual and bilingual contexts with a large mean effect size. However, it seems necessary to choose the precise NWRT materials based on the children's language background and to complement the assessment sessions with other tools in order to ensure diagnosis and to obtain complete language profile of the child. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.15152370

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