Lithuanian Non-word repetition test: research into TD (Typically Developing Children) and SLI children

Abstract

Repeating a non-word is not as easy as it may seem and to do it correctly, multiple skills are needed. The non-word repetition task involves a series of cognitivelinguistic processes that include speech perception, phonological encoding, phonological memory and articulation. Also it is claimed, that the abilities to repeat a non-word and learn the phonological form of a new word are closely linked (Gathercole, 2006) The study investigated the accuracy of production of the non-word repetition performance of TD and SLI children, 50 children in totol. The Lithuanian non-words were designed with regard to the structural characteristics of Lithuanian words (word length, vowel and consonant frequency, and syllable structure). The analysis shows that the results of TD children and children with SLI have shown that the length of the word is an important indicator: repetition accuracy was found to decline with the increasing number of syllables in both TD and SLI groups. The results of the word complexity have demonstrated that both groups were better performing words without consonant clusters rather than with consonant clusters. The accuracy of repetition of non-words was also determined by the place where the consonant clusters occurred: SLI children did significantly more errors in repeating words with a consonant cluster in the middle of the word compared to those with a consonant cluster in the beginning of the word. The overall Lithuanian Non-word repetition test results show that SLI children repeat non-word significantly less accurately than TD children.