The role of non-initial clusters in the Children’s test of Nonword Repetition: evidence from children with language impairment and typically developing children

Cilibrasi, L., Stojanovik, V. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6791-9968, Loucas, T. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8130-6690 and Riddell, P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4916-2057 (2018) The role of non-initial clusters in the Children’s test of Nonword Repetition: evidence from children with language impairment and typically developing children. Dyslexia, 24 (4). pp. 322-335. ISSN 1099-0909 doi: 10.1002/dys.1599

Abstract/Summary

One of the most used tests of nonword repetition is the Children’s test of Nonword Repetition (CNRep, Gathercole et al., 1994, Gathercole & Baddeley, 1996). The test is composed of nonwords of different length, and normative data suggest that children experience more difficulties in repeating long nonwords. An analysis of the distribution of phonological clusters in the test shows that non-initial clusters are unequally distributed in the test, and they always appear in long nonwords. For this reason, we hypothesised that the difficulties children encounter with long nonwords may be influenced by the phonological complexity of the clusters, and not just by the challenge for working memory associated with long nonwords. To test the hypothesis, we compared performance in long nonwords with and without a non-initial cluster in 18 children with language impairment and 18 typically developing children. Without questioning the validity of the test as a diagnostic tool, our analysis shows that, in line with our prediction, long nonwords with non-initial clusters are repeated less accurately by both groups. In addition, there was an interaction of the effect of cluster and age: specifically, it is absent in younger children and it gradually increases with age. These findings suggest that phonological complexity may be impacting on the length effect normally observed in the CNRep task, and this impact may be particularly evident in older children.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/79282
Identification Number/DOI	10.1002/dys.1599
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Development Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Clinical Language Sciences Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Language and Cognition Interdisciplinary Research Centres (IDRCs) > Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism (CeLM)
Publisher	Wiley
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