The Promise of Nonword Repetition as a Clinical Tool

Nonword repetition requires the immediate recall of novel word forms such as woogalamic. The task mimics the learning of the phonological form of a new word as one aspect of vocabulary acquisition. Individuals with language learning difficulties typically are poor at repeating nonwords. Children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) show marked and pervasive deficits on nonword repetition tasks; this deficit is highly heritable and linked to chromosome 16. Even children with a history of SLI but who score in the average range on language measures continue to have difficulty recalling novel words accurately. Nonword repetition effectively discriminates children with SLI from typically developing monolingual groups, and children learning a second language. The nonword repetition task is a simple, practical tool that can be scored online and easily adapted to the clinic environment. It is likely that the SLI impairment in nonword repetition arises in part due to deficits in phonological knowledge and retention impairing the transfer of new phonological material to the lexicon. Intervention strategies may be aimed either at enhancing the encoding or retention of new phonological sequences.