Nonword Repetition and Child Language Impairment

TLDR

Diagnostic tests for language lack reliable likelihood ratios, creating a critical need for such data. The study examined a brief, processing‑dependent nonword repetition task intended to reduce biases of conventional language tests. The nonword repetition task showed no overlap between intervention and typical children, distinguished language‑impaired from normally developing children with high accuracy compared to a traditional test, and appears clinically useful as a screening measure.

Abstract

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.