Author Information
Eugen Zaretsky, Marburg University Hospital, GermanyBenjamin P. Lange, IU International University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Christiane Hey, Marburg University Hospital, Germany
Abstract
Purpose: Nonword repetition (NWR) tasks are widely used for the detection of children with deficits in phonological short-term memory (PSTM). Such deficits can be indicative of language(-related) medical impairments with or without comorbidities. However, previous studies showed a considerable influence of children’s language competence on NWR performance. Therefore, some language-unspecific NWR tasks were developed that should minimize linguistic interferences and provide a more direct access to PSTM.
Methods: In the current retrospective study, language-specific and language-unspecific NWR tasks were compared regarding their associations with children’s language skills and language(-related) impairments. Ten samples of four- and five-year-old monolingual and bilingual German children that were tested either with language-specific or language-unspecific NWR tasks were compared regarding linguistic interferences, associations between NWR performance and language(-related) medical issues as well as possible influence factors on the NWR scores. Sample sizes varied from 161 to 2,750. Seven NWR tests were utilized.
Results: In most cases, NWR performance depended on German articulation/phonotactics skills and was hardly associated with language(-related) impairments. Monolinguals outperformed bilinguals in language-specific nonwords under condition of significantly better German articulation skills. Language-unspecific nonwords minimized the influence of language competence on the NWR performance. However, this “culture-fairness” did not result in higher associations with language(-related) medical issues in comparison with language-specific nonwords.
Discussion and Conclusion: Neither language-specific nor language-unspecific NWR tasks contribute to the diagnostics of language(-related) impairments. Independent cut-off criteria for such impairments based on the NWR performance would be misleading due to strong linguistic interferences even in case of comparatively language-unspecific nonwords.
Paper Information
Conference: ACE2025Stream: Assessment Theories & Methodologies
This paper is part of the ACE2025 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Zaretsky E., Lange B., & Hey C. (2026) Both Are Worse: Nonword Repetition Tasks With a High vs. Low Linguistic Load as Clinical Markers for Language(-Related) Impairments ISSN: 2186-5892 – The Asian Conference on Education 2025: Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 553-570) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2186-5892.2026.42
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2186-5892.2026.42
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