Non-word repetition in Dutch-speaking children with specific language impairment with and without reading problems

Recently, English studies have shown a relationship between non-word repetition (NWR) and the presence of reading problems (RP). Children with specific language impairment (SLI) but without RP performed similarly to their typically developing (TD) peers, whereas children with SLI and RP performed significantly worse on an NWR task. The current study was undertaken to investigate whether this difference in NWR performance is also found in a language with a transparent orthography - Dutch. The study included 15 TD children and 29 children with SLI. All children performed an NWR task that included non-words of 2-5 syllables in length. Children with SLI 2 RP (N = 11) did not differ on any of the four conditions from the TD group, whereas the children with SLI + RP (N = 18) scored more poorly on the 3-, 4-, and 5-syllable items compared to the TD group. NWR performance was significantly poorer on the 3- and 4-syllable conditions for children with SLI + RP compared to SLI - RP. To conclude, NWR is specifically affected in children with SLI + RP who are learning to read and write in a transparent orthography. Our data underline the dependency relation between literacy development and NWR performance in children with SLI.