Non-Word Repetition: Understanding the Underlying Phonological Skills of Saudi Children with Developmental Language Disorder

Abstract

This study explored the impact of phonological factors on non-word repetition tasks (NWR) in Saudi children with developmental language disorders (DLD) compared to their typically developing (TD) peers. Three phonological factors were studied: word length, word complexity, and phonological representation. These factors were examined in three tasks: crosslinguistic non-word repetition (CL), Saudi-specific non-word repetition (SS), and non-word discrimination tasks.A type of error analysis was conducted to identify which specific phonological process might be impaired. The age factor was included which also might be another source of variability. A mixed-effect regression analysis was conducted to determine the relative influence of phonological factors and age on performing NWR tasks.

Children with DLD performed less accurately than their TD peers. The effects of phonological factors, such as word length and word complexity, were negative in both groups, with a greater effect in the DLD group. In contrast, the influences of age and non-word discrimination were uncertain. These results suggest a potential deficiency in phonological short-term memory among children with DLD. However, the role of phonological representation cannot be excluded. Further studies should include a larger sample size and different task designs to solve the issue of uncertainty.