Socio-economic status affects sentence repetition, but not non-word repetition, in Chilean preschoolers

Abstract

Sentence repetition and non-word repetition tests are widely-used measures of language processing which are sensitive to language ability. Surprisingly little previous work has -economic status (SES) affects their sentence and nonword repetition accuracy. This study investigates sentence and non-word repetition using an adaptation of the Grammar and Phonology Screening (GAPS) test. The sample comprised 126 typically-developing Spanish-monolingual Chilean children aged 5;6 from low (n=65) and high (n=61) socioeconomic status (SES) families. The results revealed that the high SES group scored significantly higher than the low SES group in the sentence repetition task, but there was no group difference for non-word repetition. The high SES group also scored significantly higher on a measure of vocabulary comprehension, and when vocabulary comprehension was taken into account, the group difference in sentence repetition was no longer significant. We discuss how the differential effect of SES on sentence and non-word repetition might be explained by differences in the language and cognitive mechanisms involved in the two tasks, and we discuss the clinical implications of our findings.

Independent and Combined Effects of Socioeconomic Status (SES) and Bilingualism on Children’s Vocabulary and Verbal Short-Term Memory

“…To estimate the magnitude of each factor, effect sizes were determined by partial eta squared (partial η 2 ). In order to evaluate the effect of vocabulary on the relationship between SES and repetition tasks, following Komeili and Marshall (2013) and Balladares et al (2016) , we additionally conducted two analyses of variance using expressive vocabulary and FWD as covariates. Finally, outliers (participants performing below -2 SD and above 2 SD) for each group on each measure were identified.…”

“…In a similar vein, findings provide inconclusive evidence for NWR. There is evidence that NWR is free of SES influence (e.g., Gardner et al, 2006 ; Balladares et al, 2016 ); however, other studies seem to show that NWR is affected by SES (e.g., Roy et al, 2014 ). The disparity in results has been linked to task differences.…”

“…Repetition tasks [nonword repetition (NWR) and sentence repetition (SRep)] are reliable screening measures for diagnosing SLI among monolingual and bilingual children (e.g., Conti-Ramsden et al, 2001 ; Armon-Lotem and Meir, 2016 ). Yet research on effects of SES on repetition tasks is scarce (but see Balladares et al, 2016 ; Chiat and Polišenská, 2016 ). Likewise, few studies have evaluated separate and combined effects of SES and bilingualism on repetition tasks (but see Chiat and Polišenská, 2016 ).…”

“…A recent study by Balladares et al (2016) investigated effects of SES on NWR and SRep tasks in 126 typically developing Spanish-monolingual Chilean children, aged 3; 10–6; 3, from low and high SES. The SES status was obtained based on the type of school that children were attending: low-SES participants were recruited from public schools and high SES participants were drawn from private schools.…”

“…Results for SRep are more consistent and point at group differences, corroborating the findings for vocabulary: children from low SES score significantly lower than children from mid-high SES (e.g., Gardner et al, 2006 ; Roy et al, 2014 ). Some studies demonstrate that the effect of SES on repetition tasks disappears once vocabulary is controlled for (e.g., Balladares et al, 2016 ), suggesting that the effect of SES is mainly driven by smaller vocabularies. However, there is also some evidence that the effect of SES is not limited to the verbal domain and that it affects children’s executive function skills as well (e.g., Klenberg et al, 2001 ; Ardila et al, 2005 ).…”