Real-Word and Nonword Repetition in Italian-Speaking Children With Specific Language Impairment: A Study of Diagnostic Accuracy

Abstract

Purpose: Using two different scoring methods, we examined the diagnostic accuracy of both real-word and nonword repetition in identifying Italian-speaking children with and without specific language impairment (SLI). Method: A total of 34 children aged 3;11 to 5;8 participated – 17 children with SLI and 17 typically developing children matched for age (TD-A children). Children completed real-word and nonword repetition tasks. The capacity of real-word and nonword repetition tasks to discriminate children with SLI from TD-A was examined through binary logistic regression and response operating characteristics curves. Results: Both real-word and nonword repetition showed good (or excellent) sensitivity and specificity in distinguishing children with SLI from their typically developing peers. Conclusions: Nonword repetition appears to be a useful diagnostic indicator for Italian, as in other languages. In addition, real-word repetition also holds promise. The contributions of each type of measure are discussed.

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

“…The results show that both scoring methods discriminated well between children with and without LI in both the group of monolingual and bilingual children. The number of items correct actually achieved the highest levels of sensitivity and specificity for the Q-U NWRT within the monolingual group of children, in line with other research (Dispaldro et al, 2013). Within the bilingual group, results for the two scoring methods were very similar.…”

“…ContiRamsden, Botting, & Faragher, 2001), others report sensitivity and specificity above 90%, indicating high accuracy in identifying children with LI and TD respectively (e.g. Dispaldro et al, 2013;Gray, 2003;Kalnak, Peyrard-Janvid, Forssberg, & Sahlén, 2014).…”

“…De Bree, Rispens, & Gerrits, 2007;Dispaldro, Leonard, & Deevy, 2013;Gathercole & Baddeley, 1990). As nonword repetition appears to be one of the most effective single predictors of language learning ability (Gathercole, 2006), several studies have investigated whether a NWRT can be used as a clinical marker to identify LI in children.…”

Baremación de una tarea de repetición de pseudopalabras para la evaluación del desarrollo léxico

“…These scales are already to be found in other languages. We can find studies in Cantonese (Ho & Lai, 1999), Finnish (Service, 1992), French (Le Foll et al,1995) (Dollaghan & Campbell, 1998;Gathercole & Beddeley, 1996;Seeff-Gabriel, Chiat & Roy, 2008); Italian (Dispaldro, et al 2013), Japanese (Yuzawa & Saito, 2006), Brazilian Portuguese (Santos, Bueno & Gathercole) 2006; Santos & Bueno, (2003) and Swedish (Sahlen, Reuterskiold-Wagner, Nettelbladt & Radeborg, 1999).…”

“…Findings show that nonword repetition presents good discriminatory capacity across typically developing children and children with specific language impairment (SLI) or even those with language delay (Bishop, et al, 1996;Chiat & Roy, 2007;Dispaldro et al, 2013;Dollaghan & Campbell, 1998;Jones, Tamburelli, Watson, Gobert & Pine, 2010). Evidently, the sensitivity and specificity of the test varies across studies, anales de psicología, 2018, vol.…”